{"slug": "fake-ai-job-candidates-are-forcing-a-hiring-rethink-at-arena-its-ceo-says", "title": "Fake AI job candidates are forcing a hiring rethink at Arena, its CEO says", "summary": "Arena CEO Anastasios Angelopoulos said his AI-model evaluation company has interviewed job applicants who turned out to be AI-generated, not real people, and that the company is considering requiring in-person onboarding to verify candidates' identities. Angelopoulos said the fake applicants passed technical interviews but were 'vaporware' when it came to hiring, and he suggested the bogus applications could stem from corporate espionage or cyberattacks. The FBI has warned that North Korean IT workers used AI and face-swapping in video interviews to secure remote roles at US companies, and Gartner predicts one in four candidate profiles worldwide will be fake by 2028.", "body_md": "Arena's CEO says his company has encountered job applicants who seem too good to be true — literally.\n\nAnastasios Angelopoulos said that the AI-model evaluation company he cofounded has interviewed candidates who turned out to be AI rather than real people.\n\n\"They're passing all of our [technical interviews](https://www.businessinsider.com/job-application-ai-chatgpt-how-to-explained-careers-cheating-hiring-2024-8),\" Angelopoulos said in an interview on the \"20VC\" podcast that aired on Monday.\n\n\"And then what happens at the end of it? You try to hire them, and it's vaporware,\" he added, referring to an industry term for a product that never materializes.\n\nHe described the applicants as \"fake people applying to companies,\" adding that Arena's engineers had interviewed the candidates and believed they were real.\n\n\"This person wasn't real. It was AI,\" he said.\n\nAngelopoulos did not say how Arena had determined the [applicants were AI-generated](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-avoid-sounding-job-application-written-ai-2025-7).\n\nHe said he did not know who was behind the bogus applications, but raised the possibility of corporate espionage, cyberattacks, or attempts to access company data and code.\n\nArena didn't immediately reply to a request for comment from Business Insider.\n\n## The rise of fake candidates\n\nAngelopoulos said fake candidates were pushing Arena to consider requiring new hires to [complete onboarding in person.](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-job-interviews-in-person-nick-bloom-rto-2026-7)\n\n\"If you want a laptop, you got to come to the office. We got to go and shake your hand. We got to verify that you're real,\" Angelopoulos said.\n\n\"People are trying to get into all of the American businesses,\" Angelopoulos added. \"We're not the only ones. This is happening everywhere.\"\n\nIt's not the first time US companies have confronted fake job candidates involving AI, although the scale can vary from individual scammers to coordinated nation-state schemes.\n\nIn a [2025 alert](https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber/alerts/2025/north-korean-it-workers-conducting-data-extortion), the FBI warned that North Korean IT workers had used AI and face-swapping technology in video interviews to conceal their identities and secure remote roles at US companies.\n\nThe bureau said some workers then used unlawful access to steal proprietary and sensitive data after obtaining employment with more than 100 US companies.\n\nIt urged employers to verify identities during interviews and onboarding — ideally in person — and to continue checks throughout remote workers' employment.\n\nSeveral tech companies have since moved to block bogus job applications. [Coinbase required all workers](https://www.businessinsider.com/coinbase-north-korea-threats-remote-work-2025-8) to come to the US for in-person orientation, while [Amazon has used AI](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-blocks-north-korean-job-applications-remote-workers-cso-says-2025-12) to screen and block applications from suspected North Korean agents.\n\nWhile the exact number of companies facing fake AI job candidates is unclear, Gartner, a technology research and advisory firm, found in a second-quarter 2025 [survey](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-07-31-gartner-survey-shows-just-26-percent-of-job-applicants-trust-ai-will-fairly-evaluate-them) of 3,000 job candidates that 6% admitted taking part in interview fraud — either posing as someone else or having someone else pose as them in an interview.\n\nGartner said it expects one in four candidate profiles worldwide to be fake by 2028.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-ai-job-candidates-are-forcing-a-hiring-rethink-at-arena-its-ceo-says", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-ai-job-candidates-pass-interviews-vanish-arena-ceo-2026-8", "published_at": "2026-08-04 12:35:32+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-04 13:31:09.288147+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Arena", "Anastasios Angelopoulos", "Business Insider", "FBI", "Coinbase", "Amazon", "Gartner"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-ai-job-candidates-are-forcing-a-hiring-rethink-at-arena-its-ceo-says", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-ai-job-candidates-are-forcing-a-hiring-rethink-at-arena-its-ceo-says.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-ai-job-candidates-are-forcing-a-hiring-rethink-at-arena-its-ceo-says.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/fake-ai-job-candidates-are-forcing-a-hiring-rethink-at-arena-its-ceo-says.jsonld"}}