AI's getting good at cat & mouse game

Tech-enabled cheating is posing a challenge to recruitment managers, and the solution seems to be more technology, not less of it. The cheater's toolkit has become bigger and more powerful as automated applicant screening becomes mainstream for companies hiring employees remotely. Interview questions can be intercepted in real time and fed into AI models for correct responses. Custom interview apps can generate the right answer, and bots can apply to thousands of listings instantaneously. Hidden instructions can be embedded in code AI evaluators read to rank candidates at the top of the pile. Deepfakes can create fabricated identities, and qualified 'stand-ins' can get weak applicants past the screen.

Companies, however, are getting savvier with their interview practices. Interviewers insist on meeting in person, and they go off the script to detect anomalies. These tactics rely on human intelligence, but recruiters need to wheel in the big AI guns. Proctoring tools have become available that can tell if a candidate's gaze is directed at a second screen. These can sweep the candidate's environment for anomalous noise that would suggest real-time coaching. Keyboard-typing rhythms can be parsed to detect unauthorised desktop usage. The true measure of AI as gatekeeper, however, is shaping up in its ability to probe the candidate's mind. They are getting pretty good at sensing unnatural pauses and changes in language structure that reveal prompting. And questions are becoming more personal, where synthetic answers don't work.

AI has set off this cat and mouse game, and it will find ways to improve on the job it has on hand - finding the right candidate. AI-driven video screening is rapidly improving to evaluate communication style, technical competence and role alignment. Algorithms can do a much better job than human recruiters in multi-dimensional evaluation because of the data they can process. And while at it, AI will become smart enough to identify candidates who want to outsmart the system.