Posthuman recruiting – a conversation with virtual job coaches (2024)

Over the past year, artist duo KairUs has explored AI’s impact on employment, focusing on AI tools used by job seekers and recruiters. Companies are excited about AI’s potential, which promises to de-bias hiring decisions and enhance recruiting efficiency. Resume screening software, video interview analysis, and augmented corporate training are now part of the HR professional’s AI toolkit. While these technologies may simplify recruiting for HR, EU policymakers have recognized AI-augmented employment as a high-risk category. However, AI’s use in recruiting remains opaque and unregulated, with legislation lagging behind. This has spurred a consulting industry in which influencers, aiming for profit, offer tips to bypass AI rankings and profiling. The virtual job coaches captures KairUs’ artistic research, including experiments using popular models such as ChatGPT-4o, Claude 3, Llama 3.1 or Mixtral and generative media assets to optimize performance for the non-human in recruiting.

The work is research-in-progress and a part of a longer engagement in AI recruitment, made possible through an EU-funded EMAP fellowship at m-cult in Helsinki.