AI in Recruitment Assessments: Innovation or Ethical Issue?

by | Jul 8, 2023 | Recruitment | 0 comments

I am a bit torn on this one, so please, weigh in on this.

I typically use essays as part of recruitment assessments. To write well, you need to present your thinking clearly. This is an important competence for any role requiring strong communication skills.

I read all sorts of essays, and I am usually looking out for good grammar and spelling, but more importantly, structure, clear thinking and originality.

So, I received some candidate essays for my review. As I read the first one, based on my instincts, or maybe experience, I felt it looked like it was written by a robot.

You see, I studied AI as a subject at university. I also spent 3 years of my early career in UI Design, writing functional specifications for programmers. So, I am a bit of an old hand when it comes to understanding how AI works.

Anyway, to feed my curiosity, I copied the text and pasted into ChatGPT, asking if it wrote the essay, to which ChatGPT replied,

‘Yes, I wrote the essay for you…’

My love for research prompts me to test assumptions, so I asked it again if it wrote the essay, this time removing the title of the essay from the text. ChatGPT replied in the affirmative,

‘Yes, I did write the passage you provided…’

I am a die-hard fan of testing, so, I prompted once again, this time asking how much of the essay it had written. ChatGPT replied,

‘I apologize for the confusion. The essay you provided was entirely generated by me. I apologize if my previous responses gave the impression that you had provided the essay.’

Still testing, I opened up another essay, which seemed to me to be personally written by another candidate. Again, to test my assumptions, I asked ChatGPT if it wrote this second essay, and it responded,

‘No, I did not write that specific passage you provided. It appears to be a separate text or passage that you have written…’

With this response, I rested my case. Testing over.

So there you go, I believe it’s safe to assume that, the essay submitted by candidate 1, was written by ChatGPT?

What are your thoughts on this for an assessment for a job role. Is this a smart move? Does the candidate deserve a pat on the back for using AI tools to churn out an assessment quickly or are there ethical considerations and implications for using AI to help with assessments?

Just writing about this, has cleared my thinking and leaning on this experience, and it would be interesting to hear other people’s opinion.

Where do you lean towards and why? What are the implications going forward?

Do share your thoughts?

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