--- title: "When You Apply for a Job Now, You’re Competing With Non-Human Entities" description: "As if the market weren't already bad enough, applicants are now having to compete with AI-generated job seekers." date: "2025-04-26" modified: "2025-04-26" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/ai-job-seekers-competition" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "jobs" - "labor" - "work" --- # When You Apply for a Job Now, You’re Competing With Non-Human Entities ![As if the market weren't already bad enough, applicants are now having to compete with AI-generated job seekers.]() *A horror concept. Of a supernatural female demon with glowing eyes. With a texture edit. \Image: David Wall / Getty Images\* As if the job market weren't already bad enough, applicants are now forced to compete with AI-generated employment seekers. As [*CBS News* reports,]() scam artists are using AI to cook up headshots and write fake résumés and sites to fit the specifics of a given job opening. Sometimes, those AI scammers end up getting hired — and once they're there, they can steal trade secrets and sabotage a company's systems with malware. A few months ago, Dawid Moczadlo, the co-founder of the cybersecurity firm Vidoc, posted a [now-viral video on LinkedIn]() showing him interviewing a candidate who he realized was using some sort of AI filter to obscure their face. Moczaldo asked the seemingly scamming candidate to put their hand in front of their face to see if it would "break" the deepfake filter. When the person refused, he ended the call immediately. https://www.twitter.com/Pragmatic_Eng/status/1899522096029401292 In an interview with *CBS*, the Vidoc cofounder said he felt a "little bit violated, because we are the security experts" — though ultimately, he was glad the scammer didn't get further. According to researchers Moczadlo spoke to after the incident, the phony applicant appeared to act in a similar way to North Korean hacker networks that create fake identities to work remote jobs in the United States. Though the incident is still being investigated, the Vidoc cofounder believes it could have been worse. "We are really lucky that we are security experts," Moczaldo said. "But for companies that have regular people like hiring managers or regular startup founders, it's really hard for them to spot something like this." "Sometimes," he continued, "it takes a hacker to find a hacker." Unfortunately, that was not the first time Vidoc had encountered an AI applicant. After it happened again, as seen in Moczadlo's LinkedIn video, the company decided to change its hiring practices and now flies top candidates out to San Francisco for in-person interviews at Vidoc's offices, complete with travel expenses covered and pay for the trial day of work. While it's great to know that employers are trying to filter out these AI scammers, it's still pretty bad news for real people on the other end of hiring processes. Between [companies laying off staff]() in hamfisted attempts to streamline their work with AI and generative phonies gumming up the application process, it appears that the rise of generative AI now has job applicants stuck between a rock and a hard place. **More on AI and work:** [*Investor Creates AI Employee, Immediately Sexually Harasses It*]() ## 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]()