AI bias in hiring decisions is often copied by human reviewers, study reveals

An organization drafts a job listing with artificial intelligence. Droves of applicants conjure résumés and cover letters with chatbots. Another AI system sifts through those applications, passing recommendations to hiring managers. Perhaps AI avatars conduct screening interviews. This is increasingly the state of hiring, as people seek to streamline the stressful, tedious process with AI.

Yet research is finding that hiring bias—against people with disabilities, or certain races and genders—permeates large language models, or LLMs, such as ChatGPT and Gemini. We know less, though, about how biased LLM recommendations influence the people making hiring decisions.
In a new  study, 528 people worked with simulated LLMs to pick candidates for 16 different jobs, from computer systems analyst to nurse practitioner to housekeeper. The researchers simulated different levels of racial biases in LLM recommendations for résumés from equally qualified white, Black, Hispanic and Asian men.

When picking candidates without AI or with neutral AI, participants picked white and non-white applicants at equal rates. But when they worked with a moderately biased AI, if the AI preferred non-white candidates, participants did too. If it preferred white candidates, participants did too. In cases of severe bias, people made only slightly less biased decisions than the recommendations.

Kyra Wilson et al, No Thoughts Just AI: Biased LLM Hiring Recommendations Alter Human Decision Making and Limit Human Autonomy, Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (2025). DOI: 10.1609/aies.v8i3.36749

Talking with our hands: How culture shapes our gestures

New research  shows that gesture is not merely a matter of individual style or habit, but a reflection of cultural expression tied to racial identity.

The research also suggests that mismatched expectations about gesture may influence the dynamics of interracial communication.

We all clearly communicate in very different ways. Some of us may talk differently than others. Some of us may use our hands more than others. It doesn't mean we can't communicate. When we experience that mismatch in communication, maybe we all need to try a little harder to understand each other across group differences, say the researchers.

Their findings show consistent patterns suggesting that what feels natural when speaking can differ across racial groups, and that those differences can shape how people perceive one another.

Collectively, these studies highlight that gesture is not only a personal characteristic but also a culturally grounded mode of expression, deeply linked to identity and group norms. The research also underscores how mismatched expectations about nonverbal behavior may affect perceptions and interactions across racial groups.

Yes, what I say need not exactly be what you comprehend!

Esha S. Naidu et al, Talk to the hand: Black and White cultural differences in gesture use., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2025). DOI: 10.1037/xge0001862

Scientists Discover Mysterious Signs of Life in Bizarre Blue Volcanic Goo

Unexpected biosignatures found in a startlingly blue volcanic goo beneath the Pacific Ocean may offer clues to life's origins.
Exhumed from mud volcanoes near the Mariana Trench, at depths of almost 3,000 meters (9,833 feet), the bizarrely colored sediment samples contain fats from mysterious living organisms.

With an extremely high pH of 12 – among the highest recorded in a natural ecosystem – this nutrient-poor ooze would cause severe burns to your skin on contact. Yet researchers have now confirmed that some extremophile microbes live there.

The bottom section of one taken from the Pacman volcano consists mainly of serpentinite with bits of brucite, largely untouched by the seawater above, allowing it to maintain its striking color.

At shallower depths, closer to the mud from the ocean floor, the volcanic sediment pales to a lighter blue-green, and the brucite has been dissolved by salt water.
Within these serpentinite layers, researchers detected fats from bacterial and archaeal cell membranes – the microbes' "first line of defense" against highly alkaline conditions.
The mostly intact state of the fats indicates multiple communities of microbes are currently eking out a living in these extreme conditions, the researchers explain.
Like plants do through photosynthesis, these microbes make their own energy from methane by consuming sulfate, which produces corrosive hydrogen sulfide.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02667-6