[HN Gopher] I applied to McDonald's and other fast food jobs but...
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       I applied to McDonald's and other fast food jobs but chatbots made
       it impossible
        
       Author : nradov
       Score  : 30 points
       Date   : 2023-06-11 20:16 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.businessinsider.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.businessinsider.com)
        
       | version_five wrote:
       | All the "ai fairness" bullshit it pretty rich when you consider
       | how it's main use case is to abuse people who are desperate
       | enough to put up with these automated interactions. All the talk
       | about responsible AI and whatnot and how it affects various
       | favored demographics is just a smoke screen for how it's really
       | being used to treat people like crap.
        
         | SonOfKyuss wrote:
         | I think a big part of it is execs at these companies jumping on
         | the AI hype train looking to cut costs and stay up with the
         | latest trends. They don't realize and likely don't care if the
         | end user experience is awful as long as they can claim to be
         | "using AI" in some way. Reminds me of the early days of
         | outsourcing where there was a mad rush to outsource as much as
         | possible to avoid being left out.
        
         | srslack wrote:
         | Yes, just like Yudkowsky and Altman are focusing on bullshit
         | conceptual, theoretical and absurd risks as a smoke screen to
         | what real risks and real harms will and are occurring right
         | now, for regulatory capture and more funding for their bullshit
         | non profit research orgs, so too do most AI ethics researchers.
         | 
         | I'd say they're not even hiding how useless they are. Hell, one
         | of the main criticisms of internal PaLM was that it was not
         | progressive enough and didn't toe the Silicon Valley Democrat
         | party line and thus was racist.
        
         | cyanydeez wrote:
         | AI washing is the new hotness in class warfare
        
       | shortcake27 wrote:
       | > The second application asked me to create a general profile and
       | fill out other fields, including a video cover letter for the
       | recruiting platform.
       | 
       | This is tangential to the AI issue, but wow - absolutely
       | horrible. How disillusioned are the execs who come up with these
       | ideas? Do they really believe anyone _wants_ to work for them? I
       | really feel for people who have no option other than to go
       | through this garbage just to land a minimum wage job.
        
         | version_five wrote:
         | Videos, including asymmetrical video interviews where the
         | candidate has to record themselves answering questions, are
         | becoming more common for professional jobs as well. It's
         | probably a great screening tool for identifying candidates with
         | no self respect and no other options that can be treated badly
         | throughout employment. If not illegal, this practice should at
         | least be made socially unacceptable. I'm a capitalist, but this
         | kind of thing is definitely an argument against unrestricted
         | capitalism.
        
           | teclordphrack2 wrote:
           | It's going to be an HR and lawsuit issue in the future. There
           | is a reason in the USA we don't have head shots on our
           | resume.
        
             | version_five wrote:
             | An obvious selling feature is that you can get an "ai
             | fairness audit" that shows whatever algorithmic screening
             | they do of these videos isn't affected by protected
             | characteristics. So everyone can applaud about how
             | progressive they are because they degrade everyone equally.
        
       | mo_42 wrote:
       | Sometimes I ask myself when the first major companies won't need
       | any employees anymore. Basically, run by an AI that reports to
       | investors and tries to buy robots on the markets to fulfill its
       | goals.
       | 
       | Seems like we're not there yet at all.
        
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       (page generated 2023-06-11 23:01 UTC)