--- title: "Deranged Video Shows AI Job Recruiter Absolutely Losing It During an Interview" description: "Looking for work is already arduous enough — but for one job-seeker, the process was made worse by an insane AI recruiter." date: "2025-05-08" modified: "2025-05-08" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/ai-job-recruiter-glitch-video" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai workers" - "future of work" - "labor" - "tiktok" --- # Deranged Video Shows AI Job Recruiter Absolutely Losing It During an Interview ![Looking for work is already arduous enough — but for one job-seeker, the process was made worse by an insane AI recruiter.]() *\Image: its\_ken04 via TikTok\* Looking for work is already arduous enough — but for one job-seeker, the process became something out of a deleted "Black Mirror" scene when the AI recruiter she was paired with went veritably insane. In a [buckwild TikTok video](), the job-seeker is seen suffering for nearly 30 seconds as the AI recruiter barked the term "vertical bar pilates" at her no fewer than 14 times, often slurring its words or mixing up letters along the way. https://www.tiktok.com/@its_ken04/video/7499859438732414251 The incident — and the way it affected the young woman who endured it — is a startling example not only of where [America's abysmal labor market]() is at, but also of how ill-conceived this sort of AI "[outsourcing]()" has become. Though she looks nonplussed on her interview screen, the TikToker who goes by Ken [told *404 Media*]() that she was pretty perturbed by the incident, which occurred during her first (and only) interview with a Stretch Lab fitness studio in Ohio. "I thought it was really creepy and I was freaked out," the college-aged creator told the website. "I was very shocked, I didn’t do anything to make it glitch so this was very surprising." As *404* discovered, the glitchy recruiter-bot was hosted by a Y Combinator-backed startup called Apriora, which [claims]() to help companies "hire 87 percent faster" and "interview 93 percent cheaper" because multiple candidates can be interviewed simultaneously. In a [2024 interview with *Forbes*](), Apriora cofounder Aaron Wang attested that job-seekers "prefer interviewing with AI in many cases, since knowing the interviewer is AI helps to reduce interviewing anxiety, allowing job seekers to perform at their best." That's definitely not the case for Ken, who said she would "never go through this process again." "If another company wants me to talk to AI," she told *404,* "I will just decline." Commenters on her now-viral TikTok seem to agree as well. "This is the rudest thing a company could ever do," one user wrote. "We need to start withdrawing applications folks." Others still pointed out the elephant in the room: that recruiting used to be a skilled trade done by human workers. "Lazy, greedy and arrogant," another person commented. "AI interviews just show me they don't care about workers from the get go. This used to be an actual human's job." Though Apriora didn't respond to *404*'s requests for comment, Ken, at least, has gotten the last word in the way only a Gen Z-er could. "This was the first meeting \[with the company\] ever," she told *404*. "I guess I was supposed to earn my right to speak to a human." **More on AI and labor:** [*High Schools Training Students for Manual Labor as AI Looms Over College and Jobs*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()