Huw Thomas
Commercial correspondent, BBC Wales News
Bbc
IA chatbots can be useful for candidates but should never replace “human judgment”, says a career advisor
An increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in job requests Risk of employers to hire candidates who cannot do the work, said a business owner.
Advertising boss James Robinson said that he and other business leaders saw a “real trend” in candidates using generative AI chatbots, and warned that candidates who were good to use technology could “ingest” the process without being “capable of doing the work”.
Career advisor Megan Cooper said that if AI could be a useful tool for job hunters, it should never replace “human judgment”.
A recent survey of more than 2,000 candidates in the United Kingdom found that a little less than half had used AI to help them in the request process.
Mr. Robinson, who directs Hello Starling, an advertising agency based in Cardiff, said that the vacancies of his business attracted requests that were riddled with sentences generated by AI.
“There are common sentences that we see. People always try to” take advantage of their skills “,” he said.
“They often say things like” my skills align with the objectives and goals of your organization “.
James Robinson spotted common sentences and “Americanisms” that have been copied from AI chatbots and stuck in job requests
He said that the Chatgpt chatbot confirmed that these were sentences that it was likely to generate for a cover letter.
“(It is) very difficult for me to try to determine who is real, compared to those who are robots,” he admitted.
Mr. Robinson shared his experiences to receive the job requests generated by AI on Linkedin and said that the responses of other business leaders “really surprised him”.
“I was really, really surprised to receive messages from people saying:” I am exactly in the same boat as you. How are we going to distinguish them? “”
“You know,” Do we need to use AI to fight against this and get out of it? “”
“So I think it’s a real challenge in itself, but I don’t think I’m alone.”
Robinson said, however, that the “appropriate” use of AI could help his business and that the technology helped candidates be more succinct in their applications.
What is AI?
AI allows computers to learn and solve problems in a way that may seem human.
Computers cannot think, sympathize or reason, but scientists have developed systems that can perform tasks that generally require human intelligence, trying to reproduce the way people acquire and use knowledge.
The generative AI is used to create new content that may seem to have been manufactured by a human. He does so by learning from large amounts of existing data such as online text and images.
Megan Cooper, career consultant at Cardiff Metropolitan University, says that she encourages students to demonstrate “which makes them unique” in their job requests
At the Cardiff Metropolitan University, the career in careers Megan Cooper said that she was trying to direct students through the ethics of using AI when they apply for jobs.
“AI can be used as a tool. It can be used as a help. This is something that can complement, but absolutely not replace, human judgment,” said Ms. Cooper.
Ms Cooper said that in many cases, students met the expectations of employers that candidates included a generative AI and could use it with confidence.
“They don’t want to be considered to cheat or be mistaken in any way.”
She said the university encouraged students to understand when it was appropriate to use AI.
“Perhaps it is in the research stages of the request process. It could be to ask the AI to give comments or to help structure their CV.
“Perhaps this asks the AI to help read a cover letter that they have already written to help refine it and help it appear a little more eloquent.”
In the end, the job interview process required that candidates ensure that “what makes them unique is capable of shining,” she added.
‘It’s too much a risk’
Student Jasmine James, 18, said that she was avoiding using AI for her university work.
“I have the impression that this is too much a risk, with plagiarism and things like that,” she said.
“But I can understand why people use it, because it is a faster and easier alternative.
“I just have the impression that the information is not always correct, so it is better to avoid it for the UNI work.”
Cardiff’s metropolitan university student Jasmine James, says that AI was “too much risk” to use for job requests
Student Jacob Morgan, 19, said he thought IA could be a “really useful tool”.
“I use it a lot, especially instead of Google. Sometimes I will just look for AI, because you get better results. It is therefore very useful,” he said.
AI technology was “here to stay” and “it will only improve,” he added.
Timothy Mitchell, who is in his second year of computer security study at the Metropolitan University of Cardiff, said that he thought that those who had not used artificial intelligence “were wrong”.
Timothy Mitchell, who studies IT security, says that AI could be used in a way that “helps us rather than replacing ourselves”
“Everyone uses it. Tutors use it, employers use it,” he said.
Mr. Mitchell accepted that there were “definitively fears” around the wider use of the AI ”, but I personally believe that they are somewhat unfounded”.
He added: “What humans are the best is the creative thing and the creation of new things. And AI, in principle, cannot think beyond what has been taught.”
The generative AI could be used “in a way that helps us rather than replacing ourselves,” he added.
