Proposal to Use Unilaterally-Designed A.I. for Search Was Rejected

The court in Goldstein v. RTX Corp., 2026 WL 2690139 (D. Del. Sep. 14, 2026), rejected a proposal to use a unilaterally-designed AI tool for a search.

The case is a putative collective and class action alleging a “nationwide pattern, practice, and/or policy of discriminating against older workers … in their hiring processes.”  At issue was the manner of collective notice procedures.

The parties raise four primary disputes regarding the proposed collective notice procedures: (1) whether notice should be authorized for applicants of the non-RTX Defendants, (2) how to determine which job postings qualify as “Recent Graduate Positions,” (3) how to identify putative collective members, and (4) whether a website to return consent forms should be publicly available or password protected.

Id. at *2.

This post focuses on No. 2. The court wrote:

Next, the parties dispute how to determine which job postings qualify as “Recent Graduate Positions” reserved for “those who have graduated in the prior year or two (or who will soon graduate), or applicants with college degrees who have less than 12 or 24 months of work experience.” … Plaintiffs propose negotiating search terms with Defendants that target experience and recent graduate limitations…. In contrast, Defendants suggest filtering positions in their Workday database based on several data fields and then training an artificial intelligence model to identify job descriptions meeting Plaintiffs’ definition of “Recent Graduate Positions.”

Id. at *3 (emphasis added).

The court adopted Defendants’ proposal to employ the Workday database fields.  However, addressing the A.I. proposal, the court wrote:

Plaintiffs’ proposal to negotiate appropriate search terms targeting experience and recent graduate limitations is ADOPTED-IN-PART, and Defendants’ competing proposal to train an artificial intelligence model is REJECTED. Defendants contend that the Workday database does not have a field that can cleanly isolate Recent Graduate Positions, and the requirements for these positions are phrased differently, posing the risk of an underinclusive search….  Plaintiffs note that they “requested the sample of job postings Defendants reviewed in reaching that conclusion[,]” but “Defendants have not produced any sample.” … A collaborative process to agree on search terms is preferable to the unilateral training of an artificial intelligence model, which is no less likely to raise issues of under-inclusiveness. However, Plaintiffs’ proposal is REJECTED to the extent that they seek to compel Defendants to produce a 30% sample of Recent Graduate job postings across the relevant time period. Plaintiffs provide no authority in support of this proposal, which is effectively a motion to compel discovery. Therefore, IT IS ORDERED that the parties shall meet and confer on search terms to employ in the search process within fourteen (14) days of this Memorandum Order.

Id. at *4 (emphasis added). The court ordered that:

Defendants’ proposals to: (i) employ the Workday database fields identified in their supplemental submission to identify which positions quality as “Recent Graduate Positions,” and (ii) exclude from the realm of Recent Graduate Positions any positions open to recent master’s graduates or “degree equivalency” positions open to either recent college graduates or those with equivalent work experience are ADOPTED. Plaintiffs’ proposal to negotiate appropriate search terms targeting experience and recent graduate limitations to further identify Recent Graduate Positions is ADOPTED-IN-PART, and Defendants’ competing proposal to train an artificial intelligence model is REJECTED. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the parties shall meet and confer to negotiate appropriate search terms within fourteen (14) days of this Memorandum Order.

Id. at *5 (emphasis added).