Simon Willison quotes Tom MacWright: an AI-generated portfolio tells me nothing

Core idea

Willison surfaces Tom MacWright's argument: if a resume, portfolio and GitHub commits are entirely AI-generated, the result is generic and impersonal. A hiring manager has nothing to infer about the candidate.

Context

Posted June 24, 2026 amid a surge of AI-generated job applications. MacWright writes from the hiring side, increasingly buried under such submissions.

Why it matters

A pragmatic signal for candidates: a purely generated application loses differentiation. For hiring, it points to take-home work, portfolio-based evaluation and personal references.

Details / arguments

• Generated content optimizes for acceptance, not for authenticity.
• Hiring teams are starting to filter or penalize AI-only outreach.
• What candidates should do remains open — Willison implies that original work gains value.