AI Risk Wire

Cases › biased or discriminatory › LR-2026-0566

Algorithm allegedly blocked IBM veteran's rehire at age 48

Preliminary Why: 1 report: HRD (Human Resources Director) · subject to change · 1 independent report

Status: no action reported

Severity minor
Reported 25 May 2026

No source states: loss or records, developer and model, agent tool, could do, deployer, industry.

Severity minor: test: the alleged harm is contained to one applicant and the filing states no count of affected third parties; the claims are untested.

A former IBM Software Development Manager, Daniel Swanson, says he was terminated in September 2024 as part of a Resource Action after a 24-year career. He applied in February 2025 for an open Software Product Manager role in Austin and received an automatic rejection that the filing says appeared to be generated by AI screening software. Swanson alleges the screening software carried an ageist scheme and blacklisted him from rehire. He filed suit on May 23, 2026 under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act. The allegations have not been tested in court, IBM has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled on the claims.

What happened

1 · What went wrongSwanson alleges the screening software carried an ageist scheme that blacklisted him from rehire.
2 · What it reached or didHe received an automatic rejection two days after applying.
3 · How it was caughtSwanson raised the matter in a lawsuit filed May 23, 2026.

What was done

No source states an action or fix.

Risks

Bias and discrimination
Primary12 incidents

Read from the sources; not yet reviewed by a person.

Controls

Not yet read for controls. Controls that mitigate the primary risk:

Application

Bias testing · Risk assessment per deployment · Output filtering and redaction

Similar incidents

IBM accused of age discrimination in AI-driven job screening software2026-05-29

All cases of this kind ›

Evidence

No source states: what the AI was doing, when it happened, how many records were exposed, the direct loss, a count of the other parties affected, any court case, the cause, what set it off, what was done.

Show the full account: 3 items from the primary sources

What happened, in order

  1. 2025-02-20 Swanson applied for an open Software Product Manager role in Austin.
  2. 2026-05-23 Swanson filed a lawsuit against IBM.

Not dated in the sources:

  • Swanson received an automatic rejection two days after applying.
Show every field, with its source and grade

What happened

Earliest source we hold
2026-05-25
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
What went wrong
biased or discriminatory
C one secondary source states it
primary risk
RK16
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown

Impact

Severity
minor
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown
Kind of harm
discrimination
C one secondary source states it
Why this severity
test: the alleged harm is contained to one applicant and the filing states no count of affected third parties; the claims are untested.
D inferred by us from the described behaviour, reason shown

Context

Country
United States
C one secondary source states it

Notes on gaps

The termination and colleague layoffs are not recorded as incident events because they are not tied to the screening system. No remediation is reported.

LR-2026-0566 · version 1 · published 2026-11-01 after automatic checks; not yet checked field by field by a person · JSON