And we’re back on AI. Sorry everyone, but this was prompted by a couple of things. Firstly, there was this article here. If you can’t be bothered reading it, and I wouldn’t blame you, it’s the usual disgruntled-candidate-rejected-by-computer click bait. To summarise more accurately, a mum is annoyed that her son was rejected by Woolworths after typing out a few interview questions that were then applied to a known psychometric framework by AI. To be frank, the psychometric framework is the issue, but that’s not really a story anymore now is it? Anyway, hold that thought. We’ll return to it later.
The second more important thing was a “workshop” I attended yesterday called “Gloves Off: Getting Serious with AI”, put on by NZTE. Why am I attending such a thing you may ask? Well, all of us recruiters will need to know about AI, AI will certainly be used in our sister business JOYN, and just maybe (but seriously shhhh!!), we might be building something that will certainly have AI capability. The workshop was far beyond my understanding, capacity, and levels of interest of course, but it certainly shifted my perspective on the vast majority of tools and AI products that are absolutely f*cking everywhere right now. Let me try and explain my take on what AI really is in typically bizarre fashion. Firstly, most of these firms boil down to the same thing. They’re actually just a new skin pasted across one (or a combination) of four foundational model companies. Think OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI. Some clever people have created agents to make them task or industry specific, and there is no doubt skill in this. But if you can create the agent, you can do the task. In a way, it’s all slightly boring.
I, like many men my age I suppose, often dream of having 1 million highly educated, hard-working North Koreans imprisoned in an industrial unit in South Auckland. Imagine if my dream were to become reality. Now imagine a man in the pub asking me if I own a painting and decorating firm. Well, with 1 million North Koreans under lock and key, of course I do! All I have to do is race down the Southern Motorway, open the door, and shout into my megaphone “DO ANY OF YOU LOT HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE IN PAINTING HOUSES??”. And of course, tens of thousands of hands shoot up and I have New Zealand’s largest decorating business. (I’d actually have to reduce the numbers by saying “put your hands down if your name doesn’t contain the word “Kim” – but that still might not be enough). 10 minutes later someone calls and asks me if I can build websites. I ask again and now a hundred thousand hands shoot up. And I get the painters and decorators to change the sign outside. And the website is built in 3 minutes.
AI is like having this army at your disposal and then some. Because of course, AI is being used by firms who build AI products to build AI products. No longer am I speeding through Manukau to bark orders in broken Korean. Instead, my Korean workers are organising my Korean workers into painters, developers, artists, accountants, and maybe even recruiters. Now currently, turning Claude.ai into a business certainly takes technical skill. However, that is changing as we speak. Within months, we’ll be drag and dropping to create our own AI assistants fulfilling whatever unique tasks our lives throw up. Each of us with instant access to those 1 million North Koreans I so dream of. Solutions that took years will take minutes, with no employees required. As part of my journey to understand the technology, I accidently created a supplement business. Exclusively through AI, I’ve found and sourced a weird drug, received samples (tested on the team yesterday), designed packaging (samples on their way), and figured out a global supply chain. Mostly I do it when sitting on the toilet. It’s taken just over a week.
Now back to the original article. Being concerned about a disgruntled mum and a “computer says no” situation is an absolute smokescreen. If you’re a “TA professional” and you’re losing sleep about how someone might feel when ChatGPT screens and rejects their CV, you need to open your eyes. For the past 70 years candidates have complained directly to hiring managers when a “lowly recruiter” said they weren’t qualified for a job. Before recruitment existed, I’m sure Ug told Thag that they were wrong in their assessment of their flint grinding skills. Sour grapes is sour grapes and people are people. AI is going to be assessing and rejecting candidates so get over it. The real issue is me and my 1 million North Koreans. If a tiny number of people can deliver a huge number of products and services, what jobs will be left for us to recruit? And bigger than that, will recruitment even need us inconsistent, erratic, lazy, sleep-requiring humans?
I was thinking AI would allow me an extra hour or two in bed each morning. I’m starting to think I just won’t want to get up and see the weird world we’ve created.
^SW
