Jesse was asked five generic interview questions, which included when he had gone the extra mile to help someone and when he had dealt with a big change in his life. <\/p>\n
Jesse, who is dyslexic, asked his mum, Louise Hinton-Dench, to help him write his answers, after which he received an AI-generated \u201cpersonal insights report\u201d.<\/p>\n
Both Jesse and his mum felt the report contained sweeping statements which were presumptuous and untrue. <\/p>\n
Jesse Dench did several odd jobs, like mowing lawns, before he applied to work at Woolworths.<\/p>\n
The AI told him \u201cyou are not one to try new things easily\u201d and said he might \u201cstruggle with distractions\u201d when doing mundane or repetitive tasks. <\/p>\n
It complimented Jesse, calling him \u201cself sufficient\u201d and saying he took \u201cpride\u201d in the level of service he provided customers. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou are trusted by those who know you to always do the right thing and put the needs of others before your own,\u201d it wrote.<\/p>\n
Most compliments were undercut by criticisms. <\/p>\n
The AI told Jesse: \u201cYour energy is calming,\u201d but \u201cthe flip side is people may feel like they don\u2019t really know you.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another instance, it told him he could \u201cthrive in his own company\u201d but would have to \u201cwork harder to make sure his opinions get heard\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically just giving you a bunch of unwanted feedback that you\u2019ve never asked for,\u201d Hinton-Dench said. <\/p>\n
She described her son as \u201ca real go-getter\u201d with a \u201cbeautiful heart\u201d who likes to \u201cget off his butt and do something\u201d. <\/p>\n
She said Jesse was a trained barista who had worked in cafes, events and customer service roles. <\/p>\n
He recently got his licence and bought a moped with the money he had saved from previous jobs. <\/p>\n
Hinton-Dench said they lived semi-rurally with limited public transport so her son needed to earn fuel money so he could get around. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a solo mum, so there is only so much assistance I can give with his independence.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hinton-Dench said working at a supermarket was a \u201crite-of-passage\u201d job for teenagers.<\/p>\n
She felt that 16-year-olds who were new to the workforce should not be psychoanalysed by an AI based on a few questions. <\/p>\n
\u201cAI thinks it knows everything, but it doesn\u2019t know human interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Computer scientist Michael Whitbrock said AI can be used to make unpleasant recruitment processes more human.<\/p>\n
The Herald submitted an application to work at Woolworths and completed the Sapia AI interview.<\/p>\n
The AI said the applicant was \u201cdiligent\u201d, \u201cdisciplined\u201d and \u201chighly intuitive\u201d. <\/p>\n
It also said the applicant was \u201cmore focused on maintaining good relationships than winning\u201d and \u201cmay take on the burden of other people\u2019s emotions too quickly\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou may be a reluctant participant in social events at work, and you prefer to keep your private life separate from your work life,\u201d one section of feedback read. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis may hinder your ability to get up to speed quickly at work if that work requires a fair amount of teamwork and collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n
AI expert and computer scientist Michael Whitbrock told the Herald the issues with the insight reports might have less to do with AI and more to do with personality testing in recruitment. <\/p>\n
Sapia AI\u2019s website said it created personalised insights for applicants by using linguistic analysis to identify personality traits from the HEXACO model. <\/p>\n
The model divided personality traits into six categories: honesty, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience. <\/p>\n
Whitbrock said he was \u201csceptical\u201d of the value of personality profiling and getting AI to ask skills-focussed questions that were relevant to specific roles would be more helpful. <\/p>\n
He was unfamiliar with the specifics of Sapia AI but said there was \u201cimmense opportunity\u201d to make unpleasant recruitment experiences more personalised and human by using AI effectively. <\/p>\n
Rather than using AI services from overseas, he wanted New Zealand to build its own AI capabilities informed by our culture and languages which would understand New Zealand applicants better. <\/p>\n
Woolworths told the Herald people like Dench, who was dyslexic, could request an alternative to the AI written interview.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the Herald, Woolworths said it was \u201csorry to learn about the experience of [Jesse] while applying for a role with us\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we use AI as part of our recruitment process for some roles, once we progress to video interview and beyond, AI is not making hiring decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woolworths said it provided non-AI assessment alternatives for candidates who requested one or were neurodiverse.<\/p>\n
Hinton-Dench said her son had recently handed a physical copy of his CV to the manager of their local Woolworths.<\/p>\n
At the time of publication, Jesse was still waiting to hear back about the application.<\/p>\n
Sapia has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse was asked five generic interview questions, which included when he had gone the extra mile to help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[74,365,9556,363,364,1975,162028,26441,18957,9557,5620,111514,60832,111,139,69,29374,56769,312,11669,2791,97,145,4054,1361,28355,118529,3608,92,4576],"class_list":["post-345878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-after","tag-ai","tag-artificial","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-at","tag-bewildered","tag-conducted","tag-feedback","tag-intelligence","tag-interview","tag-judged","tag-kpiti","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personality","tag-pretty","tag-says","tag-stupid","tag-style","tag-supermarket","tag-technology","tag-teenager","tag-that","tag-trying","tag-unfairly","tag-were","tag-woolworths","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}