POV : The AI consultation goes very wrong …
There are so many things I worry about when I have a job interview (Am I prepared to answerthatquestion? Will I be overdressed or underdressed? What if my interviewer hates redheads???), that it kinda seems unfair to add a new fear to the list:What if my interviewer is a malfunctioning AI chatbot?
Recently, TikTok videos of alleged AI interviewers glitching out while screening hopeful job seekers have been going viral. Oneclipthat’s been viewed over 8 million times appears to show a bot repeating a loop of (possibly German?) gibberish while a confused man tries to figure out what to do:
Anothervideothat’s been viewed more than 2 million times seems to show two chatbots taking turns saying, “Monday.”
Seems pretty dystopian, right? Well, you should know that both of those videos were posted by the same creator whose bioreads, “Live, laugh, lobotomy. All satire.” So those particular clips don’t seem to represent real job interviews, and there are likely more fakes in circulation on TikTok and other social media platforms.
However, there have been some actual instances of AI problems during real job interviews, like in the case of 25-year-old Leo Humphries. Leo posteda videoto TikTok of himself during an interview for his “dream job.” In the clip, the AI interviewer gets stuck in a loop, asking him, “Let’s circle back. Tell me about a time when when when when. Let’s let’s let’s…” and so on.
Leo has talked about his “disappointing” experience in this interview withNewsweekand postedfollow-up videosanswering questions people had about his weird AI interview. He insists that his story is 100% real, and explained that he was filming his interview to get feedback on his performance later from a friend who’d helped with his application.
So, how worried should we be about AI glitching out at our next job interview? To learn more, I reached out toMike Peditto. He’s a Chicago-based recruiter with more than a decade of experience at companies ranging from startups to corporations. He’s also active on TikTok, with a couple of funny AI interview parody clips of his own.
Mike told BuzzFeed that though it’s not yet the norm, he is seeing more companies use these kinds of AI video calls in the hiring process. “These are mostly being used in high-volume hiring situations, and almost exclusively as a first-round screen call. Candidates are still meeting with real people and having a chance to interview more traditionally after these calls.”
And he says that other types of AI tools are already fairly widely used. “I would say the most common uses of AI in hiring are companies using it to search through profiles and find people who match specifics they are looking for, outreach to candidates, and now these first-round screens.”
" Just about all rent decision and pass / fail decisions are being made by hoi polloi , though I do think this will commute over time . "
He also shared one big misconception that people have about AI and hiring. “I think most job seekers are aware that there are AI tools involved in hiring, but the bigger misconception is that they are not as prevalent or important in decision making (yet!) as people think.”
And finally, he shared a big tip for job seekers in 2025. Basically, Mike thinks AI is here to stay, and it would be a mistake not to use it to your advantage. “Take the time to learn it beyond simple chatbot features or asking it to write a résumé. Play around, experiment, learn to use tools, build a tool yourself.”
" The idea that people are just using it to write e-mail and be work-shy is a misconception ; some people are doing that , but that means it is easy to stand out above those people . turn down to use it will put you behind them , even if they are using it poorly . "
