Google will allow applicants to use artificial intelligence (AI) in its developer hiring tests.
Business Insider, an economic outlet, said on the 7th (local time) that Google is piloting an interview process that allows software engineer applicants to use AI tools.
Accordingly, applicants must use AI tools in the "code understanding" assessment to read existing code databases (DB) and perform bug fixes and optimization. Interviewers evaluate whether the applicant constructed effective instructions, or "prompts," for the AI, as well as the quality of the output and debugging skills.
The AI that applicants will use appears to be Google's in-house model, Gemini. Google sees this change as reflecting the workflow of the Generative AI era—"human-led, AI-assisted." The company plans to apply this method to entry- and mid-level roles for some teams in the United States and expand it companywide depending on results.
Brian Ong, Google's vice president of recruiting, said, "We continuously improve our interview process to find and hire the best talent," and noted, "We have introduced a pilot program for software engineering interviews to fit the AI era."
Google's adoption of AI even in hiring stems from the rapidly changing ways engineers get work done. According to Google, AI is writing three-quarters of the new code generated inside the company.
Graphic design startup "Canva" and AI coding startup "Cognition," among others, already operate hiring processes that allow the use of AI.
Emily Cohen, head of people and operations at Cognition, compared requiring coding tests without AI assistance to "asking someone to take a math test without a calculator," and emphasized, "For tasks similar to what the job actually entails, candidates should be able to use, and should use, AI tools."