Am I wrong or does the article feel like it was written by AI?
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
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It is pure slop.
Random assortment of keyword-related sentences, tied together with superficially correct language.
No human would write that thank you notes are "contentious" and "require the applicant to do free work", while linking to an X post of some dude saying "pro tip: write thank you notes"
Nope, there are a lot of AI tells in the article.
AI criticizing AI, poetic, if you ask me.
I deal with job applications. It's incredibly obvious when a CV and cover letter is just AI. There's no need to even confirm it with software. Everyone bins them straight away.
It's not so much a surge in using AI on genuine job applications—and honestly, that wouldn't even be an issue—its the sheer amount of slop spam coming in. They'll apply for half a dozen jobs with different resumes catered for them, from anything from entry level data analyst to director of marketing, not realising it's the same company.
I refuse to write any sort of cover letter for any job application. It's a job. I want it for the money. I'm not going to wrote some bullshit about how I've always dreamed of working for said company and it's the perfect role for me. In an ideal world I wouldn't be working at all.
Same here. They can find out what I'm like in a conversation, not an essay.
Its essentially expanding on the bulletpoints in your CV. Annoying but not the end of the world. I hate sites that want it reinput in specific formats for no good reason
Especially when the job is just some generic office job that you can get elsewhere. It's just not worth my time filling those in, I could have applied for 10 jobs in that time that just require me to upload my CV.
The whole concept of a cover letter seems ridiculous. Never wrote one either.
I'm the same. I still read the opening sentences of them, but if it's the usual "cover letter template" shit, it's pointless and I go straight to the CV.
We've hired plenty of people with lacking CVs that had genuine cover letters, though. It's clear when someone is trying to say they're really into their shit, but all they got on the CV is McDonald's.
But as you become more advanced in your field, they're useless. At the end of the day, you don't want to be stuck working for someone that ignores all the skill and experience, declining an interview because no cover letter.
Have I gone my whole life doing cover letters "wrong"? I use them as an opportunity to talk about things I've worked on as it relates to the responsibilities of the job that a resume wouldn't necessarily explain in depth. I've never treated it like I'm meant to ingratiate myself to anpotential employer for the chance. Usually the resume is "Here's where I've worked and my roles there" and the cover letter is "Here's what I've worked on and how that experience is relevant"
I hire for our company and a cover letter is definitely helpful in choosing who to interview since a resume doesn't always give a lot of useful information that helps us.
I don't care about your intentions for working, of course it's money or experience or whatever.
But things like hobbies, travel experiences, location and relocation opportunities, etc all have a factor on if I choose to interview them and often a lot of that doesn't get included in resumes.
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I saw a job app the other day. Caught my eye because it's offering 1.5-2x what I'm making today. They have a big disclaimer that they use AI to help vet resumes. I'm not applying because I'm happy where I am (and because an undisclosed portion of that pay is performance based), but if I did, I guarantee I'm sending AI slop that knows how to sound like what AI wants to hear.
I have been on both sides of hiring. It's awful for everyone. It's like speed dating because you need a partner in two weeks. AI is bullshit. HR is bullshit. Leetcode is bullshit. To a point, even a degree is bullshit — almost all of my coworkers have at least a bachelor's degree but I'll bet none of them know I do not — one of the guys who works for me just got his Master's. The only good test is to sit down with someone and see if they have what you're looking for.
Every time I've gotten to do that, I've been hired. But I've gone months unemployed because getting that shot can be so difficult — the one place my lack of degree holds me back.
Anyway it's like Star Wars said — when bullshit rises, more bullshit rises to meet it.
What if the preliminary reviewer is an AI and it really likes AI written text?
Then it gets deleted
Then you don't want to work there and they deserve what they get.
They’ll apply for half a dozen jobs with different resumes catered for them, from anything from entry level data analyst to director of marketing,
That even happened before LLMs. Especially at coveted companies. People just want to get an in and then think they can get the job they actually want once they work at the company.
I've seen AI generated resumes citing experience directly copied from the job posting. As in the 'applicant' says they have X years of experience working on the exact team they are applying for.
It was honestly so stupid it became kind of funny, at least the first time..
Yeah, that's the usual. It just regurgitated the job description and none of the experience matches up.
Had one linking two years as a florist to advance skills in SQL databases and project leading. Look, it could be true, but there's dozens of applicants with resumes with data science qualifications or over a half decade experience, so the florist won't be winning if all they say is what the ad said.
I imagine if any of them get an interview, it's sorted out within seconds. "So, we're hiring a mechanic. We're an auto shop. You seem to be someone that owns a car and that's the extent of it..."
Cover letter generators are really good now. You’re noticing the low-effort ones, but the adept users are tweaking and editing before send. If it hasn’t happened already, pretty soon you will not be able to tell the difference.
Thats the same as getting a template and refining it years ago though.
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Warning signs for sure. I'm with Meryl Streep here, so many Anne Hathaway's offering you a job and you can't personalize a thank you for the opportunity? I'd probably drop what I do and be her personal assistant. Because that would probably be pretty awesome.
I definitely agree about putting in some effort if it's for something important to you, but that's probably not how people doing stuff like that think.
They're all about optimizing their output, with a spammer's mindset. Who cares about effort, you can have a robot apply for a million things at once and just wait for whatever sticks. They believe they've cracked the system. And who knows, maybe most recruiters can't tell (yet).
Yet another case of slop pollution making every aspect of life worse.
That strategy works if you are applying for a cog in a machine kind of job, it won't work for a personal assistant to the boss kind of job.
Companies: Do use ai for everything always or you will be fired
Someone: makes job application using ai
company: not like that
Something is wrong here, LLMs won't spit out the same word-for-word response for the same prompt that's not how they work.
It's probably not the same word for word, but with very similar structures. And LLMs tend to structure the text in very similar ways that don't feel quite right.
The article said they were the "exact same".
Some reporters tend to take hyperbole too literally.
It seems a more likely that the candidates were cutting and pasting a standard response, either way my point was to question the integrity of the article, which seems itself to be AI slop anyway.
Or, more likely, that the article was generated to target hot keywords and is completely made up.
You are right, but you are also wrong. If they’re given the same seed, they certainly will. They are 100% deterministic. But in reality, the seed is randomly generated, so yeah, it won’t be exactly the same every time.
Even if they had the same seed, they would all need the exact same prompt. The chances of multiple people all independently coming up with the exact same prompt is highly unlikely.
Please read the last sentence of my comment. I am not saying that the interpretation is wrong, I’m saying the statement that that’s not how LLMs work is wrong. That is how LLMs work. They are deterministic. The only reason they don’t do that in practice is because we purposefully seed them with random data to make them not do that.
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I've interviewed people and gotten thank you emails from them, and they've never factored into a hiring decision.
I've never gotten a job for which I sent a thank you letter. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I think it may come across as desperate.
That is pretty low effort for something that if a little more care went into might turn around your chances.
I found the headline a little confusing. Apparently as producer or director she interviewed actors for a role, and received AI-written thank-you notes thanking her for the interviews.
It's an Anne Hatha-filter....
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