Remote Interviews Are Being Cheated And Might Need To Go Away

No, this isn't another article talking about how ATS systems are using AI to screen your applications and resumes. It's also not about candidates generating resumes and cover letters with AI and then using tools to mass apply for thousands of positions. This post is about how AI is entering the actual interview step of the job seeking process and what it's going to mean for companies moving forward.

New companies are popping up that are offering real time AI support during video interviews. Tools like ultracode.ai are specifically tailored to getting you through the technical portion of software engineering interviews by giving you the answers in real time by listening and watching the call. They can even view the screen if the questions are presented through a screen share. Ultracode states "we are the only solution that is invisible to screen sharing and undetectable to prying third party applications to protect your privacy." So there's currently no way to detect this. It also comes with a whopping $800 price tag and with today's job market, this feels like they are preying on the desperate.

For those that aren't software engineers, candidates are asked technical questions or asked to work through a problem in real time with the goal of trying to evaluate how they work with a team, how they approach problems, and how good their technical skills are. This is far from a perfect process but the industry has yet to create a perfect interview to assess technical abilities.

New AI video technologies that can make it look like you are always looking at your camera are becoming more popular as well. A quick Google search shows dozens of apps that state they can achieve this. If we pair this with the real time answers, the interviewers would have no idea the candidate is "cheating".

How long before we see more tools tailored to all sorts of professions to cheat the process? It also wouldn't be too hard to rig up a fake reference check using AI paired with AI voice and I am sure we will see some tools trying to achieve this.

This all raises another question. With coding assistants and AI becoming widely available and getting better over time, is it time to completely change the approach to asses candidates' skills in interviews? What will be the important skills employees need to thrive if AI can do a portion of their work? What should we be replacing interviews with to determine if a candidate is qualified or not? And can we even rely on remote interviews anymore or is it back to flying candidates out to meet in person which is extremely expensive for small companies.

Only one thing is certain, this process will need to adapt or video call companies will need to figure out a way to detect this.