A short, true story about bad AI
There are times when AI stands not for artificial intelligence, but for absurdly inaccurate.
This happened to me recently when a no-name job board sent me an obviously AI-generated list of job recommendations. Its algorithm proffered a “career briefing” (emphasis on the air quotes) that suggested I seek employment as either a senior VP of global sales…or a shift manager at McDonald’s.
I work in marketing. I’m a creative director. But okay.
The algo also lumped in managing director of strategy and installation technician. (No word on what needs installing.)
Below those suggestions was a decent summary of my skills and career history that predictably, because this is tech, used the word “leverage” incorrectly—a pet peeve of mine. AI clearly doesn’t know me as well as it thinks it does.
The absurdity of these suggestions are emblematic of AI’s obvious limitations. Even given solid data on my skills and work history, the technology couldn’t manage to deliver a single job remotely related to what I do for a living.
Imagine sitting with a human recruiter, who, after viewing your resume, says, “It looks like you’ve had an extensive career in advertising and thought leadership. You’d be a terrific McDonald’s shift manager!”
AI remains in its messy, dirty-diaper infancy. It still needs people to do the most of the cognitive work — things like creating, problem-solving, thinking critically and distinguishing a creative director from a McDonald’s employee.
There may come a day when we can trust the data going in and the conclusions coming out, but human intelligence is here to stay.