EXPRESS: The issues of using AI in Personal Essays and Letters for Residency Application

A large number of students are either using or are receptive to the idea of using AI to draft or refine certain components of their residency application. With a large number of applications and limited time to review them, several residency programs have begun incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate application screening processes. AI is mainly used in assessing bias, predicting selection outcomes, and comparing AI to human reviewers. Evaluating differences between real and AI statements is paramount since residency selection aims to prioritize unique human elements such as personal interests, reasons for choosing residency, career goals, and originality of personal statements. Studies have shown that faculty can correctly identify real statements, but fail to some extent in identifying those generated by ChatGPT.AI could level the playing field, aiding those who might not have access to costly resources. Nevertheless, a considerable amount of people considered that AI usage threatens the sincerity and reliability of the application evaluation.AI must be deployed with transparent scoring rules, subgroup audits, and prospective validation.Residency applicants believe that in the future, AI may alter the significance of letters of recommendation in the selection criteria for interview and selection. In-person interactions in the evaluation of candidates will become increasingly critical.