LinkedIn’s new AI chatbot helps jobseekers find new roles

LinkedIn Premium subscribers can now access a new AI chatbot that uses generative AI to help them find new jobs. The chatbot is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 and leverages a knowledge graph based on data from LinkedIn’s 1 billion members and 67 million employers.

The chatbot can provide users with advice on how to tailor their profile to make applications more successful, evaluate whether or not they are a good fit for roles, and analyze their posts on their feed to suggest relevant opportunities.

LinkedIn Vice President of Engineering Lei Yan said the goal of the new tool is to provide job seekers with a bespoke experience tailored to their sector and skills.

The launch of the new chatbot follows the integration of several other AI features on LinkedIn in recent months, including automatically generated, personalized recruiter messages, AI-enhanced job descriptions, and a profile building service.

Concerns and potential of AI in recruitment

While AI has the potential to make the recruitment process more efficient and less biased, there are also concerns about the potential for AI to amplify existing inequalities in the labor market.

For example, a 2018 study by Amazon machine learning engineers found that the company’s automated application review process had an internal bias against women. This was because the system was trained on hiring patterns from the previous 10 years, which reflected the gender-based inequalities that existed in the company’s previous recruitment cycles.

Recent research has also shown that racial bias remains a pervasive issue in tech recruitment. This suggests that AI systems trained on currently available datasets are likely to reflect this bias, and may even amplify it.

However, there are also ways that AI can be used to address employment inequalities. For example, the Melbourne-based startup Sapia.ai uses AI to interview thousands of candidates simultaneously via text chat. This removes many of the factors that might influence an AI or human in charge of recruitment, such as personal appearance, accent, and educational background.

Overall, the potential for AI to impact the labor market in both positive and negative ways is significant. It is important to be aware of the potential pitfalls of AI in recruitment, and to take steps to mitigate them.

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