Is A.I. Taking Your Job?
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you’re hunting for a job, the odds are increasingly likely you’ll have an interview with an artificial intelligence “recruiter.” And why not? It’s also increasingly likely you’ll be working with A.I. anyway.
Guest: Danielle Abril, technology-in-the-workplace reporter for the Washington Post.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Abby's just woken up. It's 731 and she's forgotten to ring the doctor. There's no point |
| 0:05.5 | ringing now. She needs to get to work, but she's not worried. She's got an HSBC Premier bank account |
| 0:10.5 | with access to digital GP appointments plus two second opinions a year should she need them. |
| 0:15.1 | Everything's premier when your bank account is. Search HSBC Premier, HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. The doctor will see you now. Apply with £100,000 annual income or £100,000 savings or investments with HSBC UK or Premier status abroad. If I get my kid a phone, I'll be able to keep in touch with them all the time. They'll be on it all the time. Could walk to school by himself. She could could see something she shouldn't. You could chat with grandma. |
| 0:38.3 | Friends, trolls. |
| 0:39.5 | They can access anything on the internet. |
| 0:41.1 | They can access anything on the internet. |
| 0:42.9 | So, should I give my kid a phone? |
| 0:46.4 | Growing up with phones isn't always easy. |
| 0:48.4 | Introducing EE SAFSAFSAF. |
| 0:50.5 | Sims that help moderate usage and shield harmful content on any smartphone. |
| 0:54.1 | Choose EEC for Sims. Only on the UK's Best Network. |
| 0:57.5 | To verify best network see e.e.com.uker. |
| 1:04.2 | When Danielle Abrel applied for a sales job with a jewelry company, |
| 1:08.8 | the email she got in reply came not from a human, but from a |
| 1:13.1 | virtual recruiter. And they say, you know, I'd like to call you tomorrow at 3 p.m. or whatever to set up |
| 1:21.1 | a screening interview with you. Danielle is actually a reporter for the Washington Post who covers |
| 1:26.6 | the labor market. |
| 1:33.3 | But with the jewelry company's blessing, she wanted to go through a process that more and more workers are experiencing, interviewing for a job with an AI recruiter. |
| 1:40.8 | It sounded somewhat like a human. It was not like a robotic voice. In that sense, it sounded like a human. But in another sense, it also sounded like a spam call. Like if I didn't know any better, if I hadn't seen that email or text, I would have been like, oh, this is some sales thing that I need to hang up on. You got to. I'm sorry to make you do this, but come on, you got to |
| 2:02.4 | like do the voice. Oh, yes. It was like, hello, I'm virtual recruiter Danielle, and I'm here to talk |
| 2:08.5 | about the job you recently applied for. And so what we found from job seekers who were getting |
... |
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