AI interview. Illustration: Xia Qing/Global Times

Have you ever imagined that artificial intelligence might have a say in whether you can get into a company? This is not a scene from a Hollywood sci-fi movie, but an increasingly popular type of online job interview among many large companies in China. In this type of "smart" interviewing, job seekers need to face a robot-interviewer that will evaluate the interviewees' answers through recorded videos. A recent survey showed that nearly 60 percent of this year's college graduates had recently participated in this kind of interview. For some of them, this means they don't have to worry if their performance in the interview will be affected by the interviewer's reactions. But for others, the lack of face-to-face communication may make them nervous or even blank out when they speak to the camera alone. Apparently, "smart" interviews are far from being perfect. Experts explain that while "smart" interviewing focuses on the assessment of basic knowledge and abilities, it may not be able to detect the "human" aspects of interviewees, such as how they deal with interpersonal relationship or work ethics. So, while "smart" interview can be seen as a supplement to in-person interviewing, it is still too early to replace the latter completely.