Congrats again to Anne Hathaway, who announced over the weekend that she’s expecting baby #3 with husband Adam Shulman! Plus a big bravo to her style team because she didn’t look pregnant at all during her Mother Mary and Devil Wears Prada 2 promotional tours — or the Met Gala! — and it’s not like she was wearing sack dresses the whole time. Anne’s two sons are older, 10 and six, so somewhat more independent. But it still takes a village, and I wonder if she’s already on the hunt for a nanny. We know she was interviewing for a job of some kind recently, thanks to a video from the DWP 2 press that’s resurfacing. Anne appeared on Hit Radio, alongside costars Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt, and detailed how she received thank you notes from candidates… that turned out to be written by AI because they all had the exact same wording. Next!
Anne Hathaway has a warning for anyone using ChatGPT to help write their job application thank you notes: She can tell.
In the age of AI, it’s never been easier to apply for thousands of roles at once. But as the Oscar-winning actress revealed while hiring for a recent role, it’s never been easier to get caught, either.
“I was in the process of hiring someone; they were all very nice candidates, and they all sent me thank you notes,” the Devil Wears Prada star recalled in an interview with Hits Radio, before adding that every single one was written by AI.
How could she tell? “They were all the exact same thank you note,” Hathaway said.
When the first one came in, she thought, “How nice, how professional.” But when others landed in her inbox, word-for-word identical to the first, the penny dropped fast.
“I was like, ‘Oh, no … I see something I’m not supposed to see,’” Hathaway added. “So I just want to warn you: If you’re out there thinking that you’re getting away with something, there’s a chance that you might be revealing yourself.”
And while she was able to see the funny side, her costar Meryl Streep, who also sat in on the interview, voiced exactly what bosses in that scenario may be thinking.
“So many Anne Hathaways that you’re going to apply to—you just can’t write it yourself,” Streep rolled her eyes. Indeed, a few minutes of effort really could be the difference between getting the job and getting ghosted. And when it’s a rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as Streep pointed out, the lack of effort doesn’t go unnoticed.
“Oh, my God, that would be an absolute killer,” she added. “Nobody on that list gets that job.”
Meryl and Emily were both appalled; not surprised by Emily’s reaction, as she’s been vocal with her anti-AI sentiments, but I’m glad to see Meryl weigh in on the side of humans. I love her sarcastic, “So many Anne Hathaways that you’re going to apply to,” lol! I don’t think Meryl was being snobby, either, like “A celeb is so important you should write the letter yourself!” Personally, I think a thank you note (or, you know, ANY kind of writing) should always be written by humans. If it’s a job you want, you should be excited enough to write your own thank you. Now, do I have a standby template for cover letters and thank you notes? Yes, of course. But then I revise and play with it so it’s tailored to the specific job I’m applying to! Not to mention, I wrote that original template myself to begin with!! And it’s not just about the content, but I imagine Anne thought, “If they’re already passing off this task to AI, what else are they gonna skimp on?”
Then again, not every office (home or otherwise) is opposed to delegating work to AI. I mentioned before my boss describing how he relies on AI to “read” proposals for him and spit out summaries. The other day a couple partners were discussing a report — for one of their biggest clients, mind you — and I heard one of them say, “Well did you ask ChatGPT?” and I facepalmed. The day AI can make a decent pot of office coffee, call me. Until then, can we please champion humans knowing/learning how to do things? As Meryl says in the clip, “Don’t let the human get away, girls! The future’s female, you better hold on.”
Photos credit: IMAGO/RW/Avalon, Cat Morley/Avalon, ASPN/Backgrid, James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon
It’s interesting that the default judgement on this is that the job candidates were skimping rather than that they have self doubt and want to put their best foot forward. Seems like it backfired, but my impression was this is an example of people using AI to promote themselves in the best way possible.
I think you’re missing that the notes were IDENTICAL. This isn’t a case of someone using ai to help them improve their correspondence, but using it to write the whole thing without any personalising at all.
ChatGPT is inherently disrespectful. Why should anyone bother to read what you can’t be bothered to write?
As an Executive Assistant & a victim of DECADES of trickle-down economics 🤬 where I often had to do ENDLESS resumes…I to would use templates IF I needed a catalyst at to kickstart communications as a time reliever but that was only after years of crafting my own documents pre internet…I’ve always used tools & technology to assist me but to let AI write a whole ass document for me? My ego & common sense wouldn’t stand for it ESPECIALLY when I know MILLIONS are pulling from the same sources!
I have a resume template that I customize (by hand TYVM) and I write an original cover letter every time.
I agree with Anne and Meryl that it’s lazy.
Here’s the scary thing. I was job hunting last year and personally writing thank you notes after every interview when a friend suggested I just use chatgpt to do it. Do you know that the thank you note Chatgpt composed was almost identical to the ones I had written myself? It was just ever so slightly different, but basically pretty much the same. I start with a basic template and then customize to add in things from the conversation during the interview, but my basic generic template is almost identical to what Chatgpt spat out.
The irony is that where I work now, there’s a push for us to use AI as much as possible to streamline our workflow.