South Bend Human Rights Commission holds a workshop on fair housing in the age of AI

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- Today in Mishawaka, the South Bend Human Rights Commission held a workshop on fair housing in the age of AI.

Katrina Lee, the Executive Director for the City of South Bend Human Rights Commission spoke about what it means now that AI can be used for tenant screening and application review. There are fears that its use may unintentionally introduce new forms of housing discrimination if biased or unlawful information is fed into these systems.

Lee told us, "Today was focused on AI and housing discrimination, and how that is a new thing that we are experiencing, and ways to be a good landlord, and ways to use it, so that you are not inadvertently discriminating against those who may be interested in renting your property or buying your property.

Discrimination does exist, and this is a could be potentially another barrier, but with working with AI with compliance and integrity, we can help eliminate that or potentially decrease discrimination in how someone puts information into their system to either review applications or screen potential tenants, that information that's put in there needs to be fair, needs to be above board, and according to the law, so that everyone has the same opportunity to rent or to buy those properties.

I hope they know that AI is here to stay, and AI depends on how you use it, and using it as a tool to help enhance whatever it is that you're doing, versus something that's pretty, that potentially could be scary, but using it and also having the human connection always attached to whatever it is that you're doing with AI."