The digital explosion is changing everything. In this book we talk about both what is happening and how. We explain the technology itself—why it creates so many surprises and why things often don’t work the way we expect them to. It is also about things the information explosion is destroying: old assumptions about our privacy, about our identity, and about who is in control of our lives. It’s about how we got this way, what we are losing, and what remains that society still has a chance to put right.

The digital explosion is creating both opportunities and risks. Many of both will be gone in a decade, settled one way or another. Governments, corporations, and other authorities are taking advantage of the chaos, and most of us don’t even see it happening. Yet we all have a stake in the outcome. Beyond the science, the history, the law, and the politics, this book is a wake-up call. The forces shaping your future are digital, and you need to understand them.

1.1 Attention Question
What is the main focus of this book according to the introduction?
Computers and their technical specifications
The impact of the digital explosion on our lives
The history of digital technology
How to program computers

1.2 Comprehension Question
What does the author mean by “the digital explosion is creating both opportunities and risks”? Provide a brief explanation.

1.3: (OPTIONAL) Opinion Prompt
The author mentions that the digital explosion is “destroying old assumptions about our privacy, identity, and control of our lives.” Highlight a specific sentence or phrase from this section that you find particularly thought-provoking regarding these changes. In the margin nearby your highlight, write THREE WORDS that will help you remember why you selected that passage to highlight. Here are some options, but feel free to write a different three words:
eye-opening idea
rethinking everything
tech changes lives
hidden power shift

Section 2: The Story of Nicolette Vartuli

This book is about the stories we hear and read every day. Stories that are about the profound, often unexpected impact that digital technology is having on our lives. Let’s begin with the story of Nicolette Vartuli.

Nicolette couldn’t figure out why she didn’t get the job. A college senior with a 3.5 GPA, she had prepared for her interview with the investment bank and stayed positive throughout. She kept her head up, smiled, and spoke with confidence. But when the company followed up, it was bad news. She would not be moving on in the hiring process.

Nicolette wanted to know what she had done wrong, but no one could explain why she was rejected—because no one actually knew. She had been interviewed by a computer that used AI software from HireVue to assess her suitability. That software rejected her not because she didn’t have some particular qualification but because, as it claimed, the software could detect patterns in people who were successful in the job—and what it observed in Nicolette didn’t match. It is easy to understand being rejected because you don’t have three years of required experience or some particular skill. This is different. And scary—especially because no explanation was offered for what the software was looking for. And it may be that no explanation could be offered, even if HireVue were willing to disclose its proprietary algorithms. (It is not.)

2.1 Attention Question
What was Nicolette’s GPA?
3.0
3.5
4.0
Not mentioned

2.2 Comprehension Question
Why couldn’t anyone explain to Nicolette why she was rejected for the job? Provide a brief explanation based on the text.

2.3: (OPTIONAL) Opinion Prompt
The author describes Nicolette’s situation as “different” and “scary.” Highlight a specific part of Nicolette’s story that you find particularly concerning about the use of AI in hiring processes. In the margin nearby your highlight, write THREE WORDS that will help you remember why you selected that passage to highlight. Here are some options, but feel free to write a different three words:
hidden decision making
people vs computers
unfair hiring
mystery job rejections

Section 3: The Impact of Automated Hiring Systems

Companies like this new technology. It is cheaper and more efficient than human interviews. In fact, HireVue, just one of many providers, has completed more than 10 million interviews. Many applicants, by contrast, don’t like these automated hiring assistants. It’s not just that it feels dehumanizing to be judged by a machine. The companies that offer the service counter that by using technology, more people can get interviews now, and the likelihood of inherent bias on the part of interviewers is diminished. They claim the technology is opening up opportunities, not limiting them—but how do we know?

The instinctive antipathy to automated job screening can’t really be because people don’t want computers making life-critical decisions. Many such decisions are made by computers today; airplanes and radiation therapy machines are now largely automated systems, for example. Computers now beat highly trained radiologists at spotting cancer tumors in breast X-rays. Would anyone prefer less accurate human screeners? But HireVue’s judgments are of a different kind. The program made a decision about Nicolette’s humanity. It decided that she was not the sort of person the company should hire, and it did so without explaining to her or anyone else what sort of person would be a good hire and how Nicolette fell short.

3.1 Attention Question
How many interviews has HireVue completed, according to the text?
1 million
5 million
10 million
15 million

3.2 Comprehension Question
What are two arguments that companies use to support the use of automated hiring systems? Briefly explain based on the information provided in the text.

3.3: (OPTIONAL) Opinion Prompt
The author contrasts automated decisions in fields like aviation and medicine with HireVue’s judgments about job applicants. Highlight a sentence or phrase that illustrates this contrast. In the margin nearby your highlight, write THREE WORDS that will help you remember why you selected that passage to highlight. Here are some options, but feel free to write a different three words:
tech ethics limits
judging by machine
measuring people
AI’s job choices

Section 4: The Broader Implications of Automated Decision-Making

Many other systems are today making similar judgments in other human domains. Judges consult computers to assess the risk that criminal defendants will fail to show up for their trials—again by comparing the individuals with others who have been arrested in the past and have been given the benefit of avoiding pretrial detention. Real-estate agents use computers to judge which prospective renters are likely to be deadbeats.

Most of these systems are proprietary, and the companies that make them don’t have to disclose how they work. And after all, they argue, human interviewers are no gold standard of impartial judgment. They are prone to all sorts of unfortunate biases and prejudices. That is why tryouts for instrumental musicians are now commonly held out of view of the listeners: When the performers could be seen, women were systematically judged more harshly than men. By matching candidates’ interview skills to those of existing workers, HireVue claims, it is eliminating the most fallible part of the system. It’s the human recruiters, HireVue says, who are the “ultimate black box.” Maybe—except that HireVue says it is matching candidates to the profile of the best of the bank’s current employees. How would anyone know if the software is simply replicating, now automatically, all the prejudices that gave the bank the workforce it now has?

4.1 Attention Question
In which field are tryouts commonly held out of view of the listeners?
Sports
Instrumental music
Dance
Acting

4.2 Comprehension Question
What potential problem does the author highlight regarding HireVue’s method of matching candidates to the profile of the bank’s current employees? Explain briefly.

4.3: (OPTIONAL) Opinion Prompt
The text mentions several areas where automated decision-making systems are being used, such as criminal justice and real estate. Highlight a specific example that you find particularly concerning or intriguing. In the margin nearby your highlight, write THREE WORDS that will help you remember why you selected that passage to highlight. Here are some options, but feel free to write a different three words:
computer justice worries
copying old biases
digital choices matter
who watches AI

Section 5: The Bits Behind the Decisions

What makes this whole story particularly important is not only that Nicolette was judged by a machine to be unsuitable but that no one—not a human resource manager, not even a programmer—told the HireVue software what criteria to use. It determined those all by itself. The software watched videos of existing employees and picked its own criteria.

The tale of Nicolette’s rejected job application is what we call “a bits story.” That is, it is not just a job search story; it is a story about the collection, storage, analysis, transmission, and use of trillions of trillions of trillions of individual 0s and 1s. By looking carefully at these stories, we can understand not only the technology behind them, but the implications and risks as well.

Bits represented Nicolette’s image as it flowed from her own computer to HireVue’s, over wires and cables and probably several kinds of radio waves. The bits were reassembled, taken apart, and analyzed by HireVue’s programs. They were somehow compared to trillions of trillions of trillions of bits representing videos of other people, and then a single bit, a single yes or no, came out: continue to the next stage of the hiring process or reject immediately. That bit was a 0 for Nicolette, and that is all she heard back from the company. But HireVue kept all the bits of Nicolette’s failed interview; she had to sign over her rights to them in order to get the interview in the first place.

5.1 Attention Question
What did HireVue’s software use to determine its own criteria for judging candidates?
Human resource guidelines
Programmer instructions
Videos of existing employees
Industry standards

5.2 Comprehension Question
Explain what the author means by calling Nicolette’s story “a bits story.” How does this perspective change our understanding of her experience?

5.3: (OPTIONAL) Opinion Prompt
The author describes how Nicolette’s entire interview was reduced to a single bit - a 0 or 1 decision. Highlight a phrase or sentence that you find particularly striking about this process of reducing complex human interactions to binary decisions. In the margin nearby your highlight, write THREE WORDS that will help you remember why you selected that passage to highlight. Here are some options, but feel free to write a different three words:
over-simplifying people
humans as numbers
yes/no job fate
machines judging humans

Attribution

The text in this document is excerpted from:

“Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion” by Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Harry Lewis.

The original text has been modified for this educational exercise by adding additional headings and inline questions.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

On this page:

Section 1: Introduction to the Digital Explosion

Section 2: The Story of Nicolette Vartuli

Section 3: The Impact of Automated Hiring Systems

Section 4: The Broader Implications of Automated Decision-Making

Section 5: The Bits Behind the Decisions

Attribution