Anthropic bans AI job applications: should other employers follow suit?

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“Because of that, it’s really hard to do this detection problem, to be able to say confidently that ‘This text was generated by a large language model’ versus ‘This text was generated by a non-native English speaker,’ for example,” Guzdial says.

“Or ‘This text was generated by somebody who just made some mistakes in their wording,’ or things like that. So, it’s very difficult to detect these things accurately, and so you can get actually in quite a bit of trouble.”

Tactics to decrease AI-generated job applications

Instead of eliminating AI use, the focus instead should be reducing the amount of time wasted on applications that will never make it to the interview stage, says Guzdial.

“You want to limit the amount of flak, the amount of people that you’re just never going to hire,” he says. For example, many applicants use AI to scan company websites and job postings to generate resumes and cover letters.

By inserting “invisible” text (that is the same colour as the background) on websites and job postings, and instructing the applicant’s AI tool to create something else – “’Mary Had a Little Lamb’ or whatever, just something arbitrary” – employers can dissuade applicants from continuing their application.