Today’s job market is filled with AI no matter where you look. Applicants are using it to bypass applicant tracking system (ATS) software in hopes of getting their résumés read by a human. Hiring managers are using it to read through the hundreds, if not thousands, of applications they’re receiving per opening. Fraudsters are taking advantage of it.

One Toronto-based startup, Tofu, is hoping to stop that, using AI to verify applicants’ identity with the metadata behind their publicly available social media profiles. The two-year-old company pivoted last September from a talent marketplace to use machine learning to cross-reference the age of social accounts, posting and liking activity and even the number of LinkedIn connections.

Today, Tofu announced that they’ll be running applicant fraud detection for Gem, an ATS and AI-powered hiring platform, helping companies recruit candidates from sourcing to application and hire. They’ve also announced the close of their $5 million seed round, led by Slow Ventures, which will help them grow employee and customer headcount.

Human resources has always been a human-led industry, says Jason Zoltak, cofounder and CEO of Tofu. “We’re very much committed to building the identity layer for it,” he adds.

Fraudulent job applications have only grown since the labor market cooldown. More Americans are now unemployed for more than 27 weeks, and others report taking more than 6 months to find a new job. “There’s a lot of great talent on the market,” says Gem cofounder and CEO Steve Bartel, “but the reality is that while application volume has gone way up, that hasn’t necessarily translated into quality.” Not just from laid-off, qualified candidates, but also from AI-generated bots.

Creating a fake job profile is faster and easier than ever. In just 70 minutes, a novice AI user can create a profile and masquerade as a real person during an interview with a recruiter or hiring manager. By 2028, research and advisory firm Gartner estimates that 25% of job applicants will be........

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