Alphabet Inc.’s Google promotes its artificial intelligence tools to businesses as a way to speed up recruitment by helping employers sort through large volumes of job applications and identify promising candidates. However, some researchers at the company’s AI division are taking precautions against the use of such technology in their own hiring process.
Google DeepMind’s AGI Safety and Alignment Team, which works on reducing risks associated with advanced AI, has asked applicants for its open positions to complete a separate form along with their job applications. The move is intended to ensure that candidates are not rejected by Google’s internal AI-based screening systems before their applications reach a human recruiter, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.
The document carried the disclaimer “Please do not share this doc widely.”
Team warns applicants of possible AI screening errors
The form tells candidates that Google’s application system has a “non-trivial probability” of incorrectly screening out their CVs or taking too long to send them to the team.
“We have an applications system with a non-trivial probability your CV will be screened out incorrectly or take too long to reach us,” the document states. “Filling out this form makes sure that a real human on the team will get to see your application.”
A Google DeepMind spokesperson said the company’s objective is to “recruit and hire the most qualified talent at Google DeepMind” and rejected the suggestion that its systems incorrectly filter out candidates.
“This team set up a special form to go past the recruiter review, and get their resumes direct to the people on the team. But there are no shortcuts to getting hired,” the spokesperson added.
AI increasingly used to screen job applicants
The use of AI in recruitment has expanded rapidly, with some human resources teams concerned that automation could eventually reduce the need for certain hiring roles. However, the way companies deploy these systems varies and is not always clear to job seekers.
Some employers use AI models to rank candidates, while others rely on automated systems to scan CVs for specific keywords and filter applicants accordingly.
Google’s Workspace division, which offers products including Google Drive to businesses, promotes its latest AI capabilities as tools that can help HR departments “save HR time by quickly creating drafts for job postings, evaluating resumes, and forecasting hiring needs.”
AI hiring systems have also come under fire for potentially discriminating against candidates. A Bloomberg investigation found that OpenAI’s ChatGPT showed signs of potential bias based on applicants’ names. And Workday Inc., which sells workplace management software,is facing a lawsuit that allegesits AI hiring systems screen applicants based on race, age and disabilityin violation of the law. Workday has denied the allegations and said humans make hiring decisions. The company did not respond to an additional request for comment.
Meanwhile, some job candidates areusing AI to their advantage by gaming the filters, or simply churning out applications in record time. The Google DeepMind team was on guard about this possibility as well, counseling candidates that their applications would be stronger without the help of AI.
The form designed to circumvent automated screening includes anadvisory: “A real human will read these. These humans get really tired of reading LLM answers, because they all sound very samey.”
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
