#@@#@!![Feature] AI line of business interviews are booming, however doubts linger

A Korea Herald reporter prepares to do a self introduction on Midus IT’s AI interview program. (Screen capture)

Interviews are a crucial part of the job search process. But what if you were to be evaluated by a machine, rather than human interviewers?

As digital transformation changes the way businesses get done, accelerated by the contactless trend of the pandemic era, artificial intelligence programs that screen or evaluate job candidates are booming in Korea, as well as elsewhere in the world.

A typical AI-operated interview usually requires candidates to sit through a set of online games and video interviews that are monitored and evaluated by an AI system, according to Midus IT, one of the first companies to offer such software in Korea.

Throughout 60 to 90 minutes, job seekers answer questions via webcam and play games, for instance, matching cards or guessing the weight of items. 

During the test-taking process, AI system monitors their biometric signals like their voice pitch, facial expressions, eye movements and measures their problem solving skills. By analyzing such data, the program assesses their skills and personalities to flag the most promising candidates for further review, developers say.

It also saves employers time and money, they say. On top of the stated merits, the pandemic has certainly helped AI-powered hiring service providers.

According to local software developer Midus IT, some 450 companies have used its “InAIR” program last year, up nearly 50 percent from a year earlier. It cuts the time needed to hire a staffer to one-fifth the usual time it takes, the company said, not to mention all the paperwork that human resources has to put into the screening process.

Aside from Midus, there are several companies that have developed AI algorithms for hiring. Local job-matching platform Saramin has its own AI interview program “IM Ground” and startup Genesis lab offers “viewinter,” which is used by big firms like LG Group companies.

Effectiveness aside, one of the key merits of AI-based hiring is the elimination of human errors and bias, according to professor Park Sung-hyuk of the KAIST Business School.

Whether or not you get a job is sometimes determined by luck, he said, because employers are only human and can make mistakes.

“(Due to this,) companies have more than one interviewer go into the interview room together in order to prevent human factors like exhaustion or bias from getting in the way of fair evaluation of the interviewee. But unlike humans, robots are never tired and make decisions based on objective data and facts,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean algorithms being used today always make fair assessments. 

It is quite the contrary. In Europe, where AI-based hiring has also gained traction in recent years, calls have grown to regulate them to ensure accuracy, transparency and accountability. 

< img alt="Workers return to their offices after a dinner break in Yeouido, western Seoul. (Yonhap)" categoryid="0500000000000000" src="http://res.heraldm.com/content/image/2021/10/04/20211004000240_0.jpg">

Workers head back to their locations after a lunch break in Yeouido, western Seoul. (Yonhap)

In South Korea, too, job seekers interviewed in the Korea Herald expressed queries.

“My typer colleague was considered ‘unfit’ for the job (in one AI interview) when he original applied for my company. Later on applied again a year later yet was hired (after currently the process). That got i rethinking about AI interviewer’s credibility, ” said an 27-year-old woman who wanted to be identified by your ex surname Cho.

Some interviewees at times said they felt clumsy and awkward because of the deficiency of human interaction.

“I did of the interview only half-heartedly. It turned out my first AI appointment and I felt a little bit dissatisfied when I learnt that I would choose to be interviewed by an AK, ” said Lee Jung-hyuck, a job seeker in his 20s.

The new technology, was not a right fit all around. Some South Korean makers, like the Korea Airports Corp., got rid of AI interviews a year after introducing these items as part of the regular hiring methods. An official at the Korea Air terminals said they “were unclear exactly how and what the AJAJAI were evaluating. ”

Professor Recreation area also pointed out that AI interviewers could give bad flocks to creative, out-of-the-box thinkers, since most programs are created on data of organization employees. When an AI treatment is faced with someone who does not ride in a certain mold, “it most likely will lose confidence, ” the person said.

There are also people who raise the manager question: Is it right to then let a machine make am impressed by judgements on human beings? Selection interviews are of great significance to help you job hunters. They can reformat a person’s life course without end, they say.

Saying job interviews would only be the start of AI contrasting humans, Jeon Chang-bae, haead director of the Korea Falso Intelligence Ethics Association, stated that: “It will eventually scratches our value and self-esteem. ”

After Kang Jae-eun ( kang. jaeeun@heraldcorp. com )

#@@#@!![Feature] AI line of business interviews are booming, however doubts linger
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