[LI] AI job interviews (3 items)

Three brief considerations of AI interviews in hiring, posted to LinkedIn.

Unilever saves on recruiters by using AI to assess job interviews: System analyses body language and word choice, but polling suggests public are opposed to such use of automation,” by Robert Booth, Ideas.TED.com, 25 October 2019 (posted November 2019)

Expanding use of AI in recruiting raises concerns & questions, even before getting to automated interviews & analysis of them. The latter, however, are not new and we should be paying closer attention to how they’re used.

A couple of years ago I thought I might do some tutoring on the side, and checking out the application process with the tutoring company, learned there’d be a video interview. Fine, I thought, thinking it would be something like live Skype interviews I’d done previously. It was surprise to learn that it would actually be a recorded set of responses (to audio questions) that would then be analyzed by some automated system. I then found out that the video of one’s interview would become their property. So I dropped the whole idea without applying.

If companies like Unilever move to “AI” interviews for entry level positions, young professionals may not have the luxury of opting out, thus limiting their employment possibilities. This use of “AI” in recruitment is a trend that needs critical review and probably regulation (esp. as regards ownership of the recording of an applicant’s interview).

A face-scanning algorithm increasingly decides whether you deserve the job: HireVue claims it uses artificial intelligence to decide who’s best for a job. Outside experts call it ‘profoundly disturbing’,” by Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 22 October 2019 (posted November 2019)

More on use of “AI” analysis of facial expressions in recorded job interviews. Secondary effects of this trend?

‘Smile with your eyes’: How to beat South Korea’s AI hiring bots and land a job,” by Sangmi Cha, Reuters, 12 January (posted 15 January 2020)

Another case in point on the asymmetry of technological development in the job market (all on the hiring side).

With automatic screening of resumes, one could in theory respond with an AI bot to tailor the content and format of resumes for that screening. I’ve previously written about that, called attention to the rare efforts along that line, and speculated on how that might evolve with developing AI technology on both the hiring and applicant sides. (IMO we still should be moving in that direction.)

But AI interviews take this asymmetry to a more vexing level. Is the only response to become a robot? And take a cram class to that end?


Other blogs > LinkedIn > LinkedIn articles & posts, 2020

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