The rise of artificial intelligence, while fascinating, has been leaving people wary about what the future holds. A lot of emphasis has been put on utilizing these systems to create art, write articles, and make deepfake videos — the ethics of which are all extremely questionable. But there are far more interesting uses that don’t devalue already underpaid and underappreciated skills, ranging from potentially life-saving to job interview hacks.
The latter recently came to light after someone in the antiwork subreddit claimed to have received a job offer for a position they were woefully underqualified for, all thanks to the help of ChatGPT.
u/JoJolion_ said they had been applying to random high-paying positions on Indeed with a somewhat exaggerated resumé in an attempt to find something better than their “toxic crappy job,” but didn’t anticipate hearing back from anyone.
“To my surprise, I landed an interview for one of those positions totaling around $75,000/yr, and I couldn’t believe it,” they wrote. “The thing is, I felt under-qualified and overwhelmed, so I decided to take some desperate measures.”
When it came time for the Zoom interview, the redditor says they kept ChatGPT open and surreptitiously fed it the questions they were being asked, reading back the answers themself in order to “generate convincing responses that made me sound like the perfect candidate.”
A few days later, they were offered the job.
The point of the Reddit post was largely to ask the community whether they should take the job and learn along the way, or if that would be unethical, but many people urged them to go ahead and take advantage of the situation.
It’s very apparent that older generations had a much easier time finding jobs, and were often able to apprentice or otherwise train on-the-go rather than already be expected to have multiple years of experience even for something considered “entry level.”
And that’s still how the world works for people with connections, while everyone else spends an absurd amount of time just trying to get through companies’ automated filters for job applications and cover letters. If resourceful folks can utilize AI to get a foot in the door, and are willing to put in the work that follows, then that seems to be a much better use of this new technology than putting illustrators out of work with soulless computer-generated art.
