arXiv subjects

Nihar R. Mahapatra

Publications and source records attributed to Nihar R. Mahapatra.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Behind the Screens: Uncovering Bias in AI-Driven Video Interview Assessments Using Counterfactuals

AI-enhanced personality assessments are increasingly shaping hiring decisions, using affective computing to predict traits from the Big Five (OCEAN) model. However, integrating AI into these assessments raises ethical concerns, especially around bias amplification rooted in training data. These biases can lead to discriminatory outcomes based on protected attributes like gender, ethnicity, and age. To address this, we introduce a counterfactual-based framework to systematically evaluate and quantify bias in AI-driven personality assessments. Our approach employs generative adversarial networks (GANs) to generate counterfactual representations of job applicants by altering protected attributes, enabling fairness analysis without access to the underlying model. Unlike traditional bias assessments that focus on unimodal or static data, our method supports multimodal evaluation-spanning visual, audio, and textual features. This comprehensive approach is particularly important in high-stakes applications like hiring, where third-party vendors often provide AI systems as black boxes. Applied to a state-of-the-art personality prediction model, our method reveals significant disparities across demographic groups. We also validate our framework using a protected attribute classifier to confirm the effectiveness of our counterfactual generation. This work provides a scalable tool for fairness auditing of commercial AI hiring platforms, especially in black-box settings where training data and model internals are inaccessible. Our results highlight the importance of counterfactual approaches in improving ethical transparency in affective computing.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Systematic FAIRness Assessment of Open Voice Biomarker Datasets for Mental Health and Neurodegenerative Diseases

Voice biomarkers--human-generated acoustic signals such as speech, coughing, and breathing--are promising tools for scalable, non-invasive detection and monitoring of mental health and neurodegenerative diseases. Yet, their clinical adoption remains constrained by inconsistent quality and limited usability of publicly available datasets. To address this gap, we present the first systematic FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) evaluation of 27 publicly available voice biomarker datasets focused on these disease areas. Using the FAIR Data Maturity Model and a structured, priority-weighted scoring method, we assessed FAIRness at subprinciple, principle, and composite levels. Our analysis revealed consistently high Findability but substantial variability and weaknesses in Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability. Mental health datasets exhibited greater variability in FAIR scores, while neurodegenerative datasets were slightly more consistent. Repository choice also significantly influenced FAIRness scores. To enhance dataset quality and clinical utility, we recommend adopting structured, domain-specific metadata standards, prioritizing FAIR-compliant repositories, and routinely applying structured FAIR evaluation frameworks. These findings provide actionable guidance to improve dataset interoperability and reuse, thereby accelerating the clinical translation of voice biomarker technologies.

cs.SD↗

arXiv2025

Fairness in AI-Driven Recruitment: Challenges, Metrics, Methods, and Future Directions

The recruitment process significantly impacts an organization's performance, productivity, and culture. Traditionally, human resource experts and industrial-organizational psychologists have developed systematic hiring methods, including job advertising, candidate skill assessments, and structured interviews to ensure candidate-organization fit. Recently, recruitment practices have shifted dramatically toward artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods, driven by the need to efficiently manage large applicant pools. However, reliance on AI raises concerns about the amplification and propagation of human biases embedded within hiring algorithms, as empirically demonstrated by biases in candidate ranking systems and automated interview assessments. Consequently, algorithmic fairness has emerged as a critical consideration in AI-driven recruitment, aimed at rigorously addressing and mitigating these biases. This paper systematically reviews biases identified in AI-driven recruitment systems, categorizes fairness metrics and bias mitigation techniques, and highlights auditing approaches used in practice. We emphasize critical gaps and current limitations, proposing future directions to guide researchers and practitioners toward more equitable AI recruitment practices, promoting fair candidate treatment and enhancing organizational outcomes.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2024

Inclusive ASR for Disfluent Speech: Cascaded Large-Scale Self-Supervised Learning with Targeted Fine-Tuning and Data Augmentation

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems often falter while processing stuttering-related disfluencies -- such as involuntary blocks and word repetitions -- yielding inaccurate transcripts. A critical barrier to progress is the scarcity of large, annotated disfluent speech datasets. Therefore, we present an inclusive ASR design approach, leveraging large-scale self-supervised learning on standard speech followed by targeted fine-tuning and data augmentation on a smaller, curated dataset of disfluent speech. Our data augmentation technique enriches training datasets with various disfluencies, enhancing ASR processing of these speech patterns. Results show that fine-tuning wav2vec 2.0 with even a relatively small, labeled dataset, alongside data augmentation, can significantly reduce word error rates for disfluent speech. Our approach not only advances ASR inclusivity for people who stutter, but also paves the way for ASRs that can accommodate wider speech variations.

eess.AS↗

arXiv2024

Lost in Transcription: Identifying and Quantifying the Accuracy Biases of Automatic Speech Recognition Systems Against Disfluent Speech

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, increasingly prevalent in education, healthcare, employment, and mobile technology, face significant challenges in inclusivity, particularly for the 80 million-strong global community of people who stutter. These systems often fail to accurately interpret speech patterns deviating from typical fluency, leading to critical usability issues and misinterpretations. This study evaluates six leading ASRs, analyzing their performance on both a real-world dataset of speech samples from individuals who stutter and a synthetic dataset derived from the widely-used LibriSpeech benchmark. The synthetic dataset, uniquely designed to incorporate various stuttering events, enables an in-depth analysis of each ASR's handling of disfluent speech. Our comprehensive assessment includes metrics such as word error rate (WER), character error rate (CER), and semantic accuracy of the transcripts. The results reveal a consistent and statistically significant accuracy bias across all ASRs against disfluent speech, manifesting in significant syntactical and semantic inaccuracies in transcriptions. These findings highlight a critical gap in current ASR technologies, underscoring the need for effective bias mitigation strategies. Addressing this bias is imperative not only to improve the technology's usability for people who stutter but also to ensure their equitable and inclusive participation in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

cs.CL↗