AI has turned the act of looking for a job into an abysmal and endless source of frustration. Applicants are using the tech to stuff keywords into their resumes and cover letters, while generating a flood that’s burying recruiters. Meanwhile, HR departments are using AI to make sense of it all as perfectly suitable applicants slip by unnoticed.
Making matters even worse are deepfaked AI avatars conducting early rounds of interviews, in a slap in the face to job seekers who often struggle to get in touch with an actual human at a company that’s currently hiring.
Beyond sending a clear signal that the company cares very little about the recruitment process — let alone about the lives of potential hires — the avatars are also glitchy and easy to break.
Most recently, a TikTok user who goes by The Dreadful Studio opted to speak in pure gibberish — the kind of made-up language you’d expect to hear in “The Sims” — leading an AI interviewer to become unsettlingly irate.
“I asked why you are qualified for a management position, not for a string of random words,” the incensed AI told the job seeker.
As the odd exchange went on, the avatar grew increasingly frustrated.
“This is an absolute waste of my time,” it said. “I do not know if you’re having a breakdown or if you simply lack the capacity to speak English.”
The avatar’s facial features continuously contorted from a blank smile into something far more stern, with Reddit users likening its scrunched up countenance to actor Inde Navarrette’s terrifying frown in the recent horror movie “Obsession.”
“Hilarious how everytime he starts speaking she smiles listening intently, as soon as he stops she gets a frown and gets angry, starts speaking back to smiling and listening,” one user observed.
Others pointed out the bizarre optics of a company deploying such flawed and inhuman tech in a public-facing position.
“I’d have to say that using an AI program do your interviews for a management position is the opposite of leadership, organization, and professional behavior,” one user wrote. Another called it “dehumanizing and dystopian.”
Even when presented with real language, AI recruiters are easily bamboozled. Last month, satirical influencer Graham Zip had the fake interviewer buy into his made-up “Chick Bong” identity and his lengthy career of using Salesforce to manage “Kayak margins.”
Unfortunately — or perhaps fortunately — The Dreadful Studio didn’t land the job after speaking in only gibberish.
“I am ending this screening now,” the AI avatar told him. “You are completely unqualified. Goodbye.”
More on AI interviews: Man Pretends to Hallucinate in Job Interview With an AI Bot, Causing It to Go Haywire
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