IBM lawsuit in Austin adds to increasing claims of AI bias against older workers

IBM, the company best known for its now-defunct computer division and behind-the-scenes software that runs everything from airlines to credit card transactions has been plagued for years with allegations that it has been purging its workforce of older employees.

Now, a lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin says it has gone even further, embedding an alleged bias into its hiring systems.

“IBM’s ageist scheme had been programmed into its HR screening software,” Daniel Swanson says in the suit he filed in U.S. District Court.

He says he was fired after 24 years at IBM in Austin because he was 48 years old. The Gen Xer points to stories by The New York Times, ProPublica and lawsuits and investigations by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that allege the company has targeted older workers for termination — or, as company consultants and executives called them in emails and other documents: “gray hairs,” “old heads” or “dino-babies.”

The New York company has…