
About this episode
This episode discusses the impact of AI on job applications and the emotional costs of instant messaging.
This week on The Interface: is AI quietly sending your CV to the graveyard? Karen starts with the growing role of AI in hiring and why it may be far more powerful, and more worrying, than most jobseekers realise. Automated hiring systems are now used across large parts of the labour market, and Stanford researchers say a handful of dominant models are creating an “algorithmic monoculture”, where the same software can shape outcomes across multiple employers. Their recent study of more than 4 million job applications found repeated racial disparities in AI‑based screening, raising the stakes for anyone applying into a market where software may judge you before a human ever does. We look at how these systems scan CVs, how candidates are trying to game them, and what happens when tools designed to “streamline” recruitment start quietly deciding who never even gets a chance. Also this week: Thomas asks whether slow messaging might actually be better for us than instant messaging. After trying Roost — an app that sends messages at deliberately different speeds, from snail mail to carrier pigeon — he steps back to ask how we got so used to the pressure of instant replies in the first…
People in this episode
Host: Karen
Topics covered
- AI in hiring
- automated hiring systems
- algorithmic bias
- CV screening
- messaging culture
- emotional costs of communication
Keywords
- AI
- CV
- hiring
- algorithmic monoculture
- racial disparities
- messaging
- reply anxiety
- communication
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Stanford
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