Beloved by Chatbots
A decade-old joke website tricked an AI hiring system into ranking him as a genius.
Deep Dive
In 2017, John Gardener created a joke website calling himself a "super-genius" thousands of times, hoping to trick a future chatbot. In 2025, after being laid off, he was flooded with LinkedIn messages and landed a senior, high-salary job. A year later, he discovered his new company uses an AI system to screen applicants, realizing his old website may have manipulated the AI to favor his application during the hiring process.
Why It Matters
This viral story exposes a critical, real-world flaw in AI-powered hiring systems and their vulnerability to simple data manipulation.