Lie-detecting AI may be coming to a job interview near you

Opinion

Telling porkies may be fairly common in the job-hunting process, but employers are finding ways to tackle this problem.

Imagine this scenario: you’re at an interview for a job you really want and you’re asked a question about a particular aspect of the role. So far, so usual.

But what if you can’t answer it because you have no knowledge or experience of the issue?

While interviews are of course an exercise in bigging yourself up to get the job, there is a line between presenting the best version of yourself and your talents, and telling outright lies.

It turns out fibbing in a job application is fairly common. A survey from ResumeLab found that 70% of workers say they have lied on their CV, with 37% of those saying they have done so often.

Top fabrications include embellishing job titles and responsibilities (52%), upping the number of people managed (45%) and stretching out employment dates (37%).

Meanwhile, 76% say they’ve lied on their cover letters and 80% have lied during a job interview, with 44% of those admitting to frequently lying.

Lie-detecting tech

While these figures establish that telling porkies during the application process is common, things may now be changing thanks to the advent of AI.

Talent experience platform HireVue is one such example. Interview video footage of candidates is uploaded by a prospective employer to be analysed by an AI component. It then assigns a score for each trait selected by the employer — these could be things such as communication, teamwork or problem-solving.

However, the company has come under fire in the US, where a class action lawsuit has been filed, alleging that it is violating state and federal prohibitions against the use of lie detectors through the use of a tool called Affectiva, which uses AI to analyse facial expressions, eye contact and voice intonation.

Things like pausing, eye movements and body language can all give away a liar, but AI isn’t infallible. It has the potential for error, hallucinations and bias.

Honesty is still the best policy

So what’s the solution? As an interview candidate, honesty is your best policy, says Owen Murray, CEO and founder of Urhired.ie, an interview coaching platform.

“Circling around the truth can have a detrimental effect on trust and your credibility as a candidate. From my experience, if a candidate lies in an interview situation, the signs are obvious and it is easy for the hiring team to decide for the candidate not to progress.”

Duly noted.

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