Don’t worry. Time travel is still theoretically impossible. I think.
A client contact of ours made an observation recently: “It seems like none of these inbound applications remember applying.”
Now, this isn’t an unheard of phenomenon. Even people who properly track their applications in Google Sheets or whatever can get companies mixed up when they hit the double and triple digits.
But this contact in particular thought something felt off, as if things are escalating. So he and his team took one job and recorded the first 100 applicants they connected with. ~70 of them either didn’t seem at all familiar with their company or didn’t remember applying.
👉A lot of them mentioned using AI job application software.
I poked around and found a few, like Lazy Apply and JobHire.AI. (I’m probably going to regret linking those but that cat is out of the bag.)
Then in the same week, Raphael Ouzan made this post on the same topic, adding the how it’s just bots talking to bots at this point.
So yeah. Not an isolated case we stumbled over. The dystopian AI hellscape is here, you guys.
The irony isn’t lost on me. Everyone is worried about AI taking people’s jobs, but those same people are very likely using AI to find jobs or vet applicants for those jobs. I mean, why not cut out the middlemen and have the bots do the rest of the work. Seems like the logical next step…
I will also admit, I used AI to double check one of my biggest fears in writing.
Me: “Did I use ‘irony’ correctly in this sentence?”
ChatGPT: “Yes, you’ve used irony correctly in that sentence. The irony lies in the fact that while people are concerned about AI taking jobs, they are simultaneously relying on AI to help them find jobs or evaluate job applicants. This contrast between fear and dependence on the same technology highlights the ironic situation. Your sentence effectively captures that irony.”
My takeaways:
1. The future will reward those who figure out how to use AI in ways that make it look like they’re doing the work themselves. But only until everyone else figures out how to do the same. Or AI figures out their process.
2. My award winning short story (if honorable mention counts as an award) “Sudo” perfectly encapsulates how AI working for humans while becoming self-aware will probably go the opposite way Hollywood thinks. Read it 👉 here 👈 (it’s under 1000 words and better than any of the AI generated junk you’ll see on LinkedIn today).
Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.
