taste of bacon, either.)

However, as we discovered when we interviewed the creator of an “Artificial Intelligence Chat-bot”, programmers who develop algorithms tend to encode their own shortcomings into the systems they create. [see Do Artificial Intelligence Chatbots look like their programmers? ]

And the Times confirms that the job-bot’s selection criteria is based on surveys from existing staff. One of the indicators is ominously called “organizational citizenship”. No square pegs in those round holes, then.

In Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs, the company’s monoculture is enforced by obedience to the cult of personality – top down. By contrast, Google appears to be developing its monoculture from the bottom-up. But it’s still a monoculture – and one only likely to be reinforced by algorithmic rejection of “unsuitable” candidates.

As we discussed here recently, an algorithmically-minded corporation is ill-equipped likely to miss problems that can’t be solved algorithmically. No robot can wish them away.

If you have an amusing experience of Google’s recruitment practices – successful or otherwise – share it with us here. We’ll set our own robot on the replies, and pick out the ones whose opinions most closely resemble our own.

(Just kidding).