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AI tenant-screening tool SafeRent pays $2.28 million settlement for being massively racist (pivot-to-ai.com)

submitted 3 days ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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SafeRent is a machine learning black box for landlords. It gives landlords a numerical rating of potential tenants and a yes/no result on whether to rent to them.

In May 2022, Massachusetts housing voucher recipients and the Community Action Agency of Somerville sued the company, claiming SafeRent gave Black and Hispanic rental applicants with housing vouchers disproportionately lower scores.

The tenants had no visibility into how the algorithm scored them. Appeals were rejected on the basis that this was what the computer output said.

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[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 16 points 2 days ago

SafeRent was a giant piece of shit before “AI”. I tried to rent a place 15 years ago that used them. The report returned several serious felonies committed over years by another person with an only vaguely similar name who lived in a state I had never even visited.

The leasing office people admitted that the report was transparently bogus, but they still had orders to deny all housing to negative reports.

My only recourse at the time was to lock my record so they won’t issue reports in my name at all. I now ask right up front who a renter uses for screening and they get a vigorous ‘nope’ if they use SafeRent.

Fsck SafeRent!