The civil service is being forced to return to face-to-face job assessments after mandarins discovered they had interviewed AI bots instead of human applicants.
asserted
they → force → applicants
Whitehall bosses are also planning to move away from the traditional personal statement after a surge in applications created by AI platforms such as ChatGPT reduced their value.
asserted
surge → plan → value
Job seekers are using AI to fire off hundreds of applications for different civil service roles with minimal effort – meaning genuine applicants can sometimes be lost in the quagmire.
asserted
applicants → use → quagmire
In the most extreme cases, some applications – and even virtual interviews carried out over Zoom or Microsoft Teams – appear to have been entirely generated by AI bots rather than human applicants.
asserted
applications → carry → bots
There is at least one case in which civil servants became so suspicious during a virtual interview that the candidate was not a real person that they terminated the video call early.
asserted
they → be → call
As a result of the deluge of AI applications, the civil service is now looking at re-introducing a requirement for face-to-face interviews in its flagship recruitment schemes, one official said.
asserted
official → look → schemes
Currently, final-stage interviews take place face-to-face or via video.
asserted
interviews → take → video
The head of the civil service wants to avoid the situation where people are using AI to generate bland cover letters, so Whitehall is also going to move away from personal statements, they added.
asserted
they → want → statements
Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo acknowledged criticisms of Whitehall being ‘tame and risk averse’ in her annual lecture this week and said the civil service is ‘no longer unequivocally considered to be the best in the world’.
asserted
service → acknowledge → world
Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo acknowledged that Whitehall is in need of reform in her annual lecture but insisted that ‘civil servants do some of the hardest jobs in the country’
While admitting that Whitehall is in need of reform, the Cabinet Secretary insisted that ‘civil servants do some of the hardest jobs in the country’.
asserted
servants → acknowledge → country
Dame Antonia said: ‘I have heard and have listened to the criticisms of the service.
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I → say → service
They are no less important for being well rehearsed: tame and risk averse, reactive, not strategic [and] siloed, not working across boundaries.’
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They → rehearse → boundaries
As well as simplifying recruitment to ‘bring an end to formulaic job ads, generic interviews and slow processes’, Dame Antonia also said she will take ‘decisive action’ against poorly performing officials.
asserted
she → simplify → officials
She said: ‘Poor performance drives out good performance and discretionary effort, and we must urgently address that.
asserted
we → say → that
‘We will strengthen processes and train and equip managers to reward those making the biggest impact, and take decisive action on poor performance.
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We → strengthen → performance
It comes after a civil servant who exploited the Whitehall work-from-home culture to earn more than £280,000 of taxpayers' cash by working multiple jobs was convicted of nine counts of fraud.
asserted
who → come → fraud
Kashim Chowdhury juggled up to five civil service jobs at one time.
asserted
Chowdhury → juggle → time
He took sick days and holidays in an attempt to manage his workload and keep the ruse going, even allegedly applying make-up to appear ill on a video call with bosses.
uncertain
He → take → bosses
And Chowdhury wasn’t alone – with official figures showing hundreds of public sector workers have been caught secretly taking salaries from multiple civil service jobs.
asserted
hundreds → show → jobs
The Cabinet Office's National Fraud Initiative has identified at least 301 public sector employees engaging in so-called 'polygamous working' since 2016.
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Initiative → identify → 2016
The civil service workforce has continued to expand in recent years.
asserted
workforce → continue → years
Last year, it had more than 442,000 full-time employees on the payroll, compared with 316,790 in 2016 and 382,945 in 2021.
asserted
it → have → 2021
The Aporia
