Center for Civil Rights and Technology
The threats to civil rights from algorithmic tenant-screening systems
As the demand for housing continues to rise, landlords are increasingly taking advantage of artificial intelligence to review applications from prospective tenants. These AI tenant-screening systems are already being used to process rental applications; they’re running criminal background checks, assessing eviction history, and pulling credit scores. And just like other AI systems, these automated tenant-screening systems can discriminate against people in a number of ways: