A recent piece in The Atlantic (“The Job Market Is Hell”) leads with a strong, dystopian observation: “Young people are using ChatGPT to write their applications; HR is using AI to read them; no one is getting hired.” The reliance on AI for both crafting and screening resumes may encapsulate what we are seeing in a growing number of industries.
Similarly, an episode of This American Life (“870: My Other Self”) points to a recent statement from Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, who indicated a desire to replace himself in Zoom meetings with a digital version of himself to free up his own schedule. But, as also stated in the episode, “If the end state of AI is just to have a bunch of avatars on Zoom calls talking to each other, then what’s the point?” Next we meet Pablo Torre, who created multiple AI clones of himself (via voice cloning and custom, curated personas). While he first deployed one such persona to test on telemarketers and scammers, he eventually turned it on friends and family. Was anyone fooled? Did it increase his leisure, happiness, or productivity?
Business Takeaway: AI is seemingly ubiquitous, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. As to processes such as hiring, this invites a host of challenges for employers—e.g., assessing skills, personality, and fit vs. the AI-curated image the candidate presents—and candidates who may simply not get a chance to speak to a decision-making human during an application process. When AI replaces human thinking on both sides of the equation, what is really being accomplished (and at what cost)? While companies seem to be embracing these kinds of technologies based upon perceived efficiencies, much can be lost if/when we stop “treat[ing] people like people.”