For every illegal drug, there is a combination of emojis that dealers and consumers use to evade detection on social media and messaging platforms. Snowflakes, snowfall, and snowmen symbolize cocaine. Love hearts, lightning bolts, and pill capsules mean MDMA, or molly. Brown hearts and dragons represent heroin. Grapes and baby bottles are the calling cards for codeine-containing cough syrup, or lean. The humble maple leaf, meanwhile, is the universal symbol for all drugs.
The proliferation of open drug dealing on Instagram, Snapchat, and Xβas well as on encrypted messaging platforms Telegram and WhatsAppβhas transformed the fabric of illegal substance procurement, gradually making it more convenient, and arguably safer, for consumers, who can receive packages in the mail without meeting people on street corners or going through the rigmarole of the dark web. There is no reliable way to gauge drug trafficking on social media, but the European Union Drugs Agency acknowledged in its latest report on the drivers of European drug sales that purchases brokered through such platforms βappear to be gaining in prominence.β
Initial studies into drug sales on social media began to be published in 2012. Over the next decade, piecemeal studies began to reveal a notable portion of drug sales were being mediated by social platforms. In 2021, it was estimated some 20 percent of drug purchases in Ireland were being arranged through social media. In the US in 2018 and Spain in 2019, a tenth of young people who used drugs appear to have connected with dealers through the internet, with the large majority doing so through social media, according to one small study.
Using AI tools during the application process comes with risks.
Applying for jobs can be a time-consuming and frustrating process, and some job seekers are using AI to try to make it more tolerable.
Guilherme, a 28-year-old based in Brazil, began looking for a software engineering role after he was laid off in April. In October, after little luck, he learned about AIHawk β atool that allows users to easily apply for up to hundreds of jobs per day. One month later, AIHawk had submitted more than 1,300 applications on Guilherme's behalf and he landed a job.
"This the type of job I was looking for," said Guilherme, whose identity was verified by Business Insider but asked to use a pseudonym. "It was certainly a byproduct of AIHawk."
Federico EliaΒ created AIHawkΒ earlierΒ this year, and in August, he published the code hosting platform GitHub so anyone could use the tool. AIHawk automates the application process for LinkedIn's easy-apply jobs β which pulls info from a user's profile to fill in an application. To date, AIHawk has been "starred" β or bookmarked β on GitHub by more than 22,000 people globally. There are more than 6,300 members of the AIHawk community on the messaging service Telegram, where users critique the tool, share tips on how to use it, and provide updates on their job searches.
AIHawk is one of many AI job application tools on the market. While it can be installed and used without any cost, users previously told BI that doing so requires some familiarity with the programming language Python.
Guilherme's tech background made it easier to use the tool. He said AIHawk typically applied to about 50 jobs a day and that some of these applications turned into interviews.
Guilherme ultimately was hired for a job he didn't apply for using AIHawk. He said he learned about the role after someone from the company reached out to him via LinkedIn. However, Guilherme believes AIHawk played a major role in the outcome of his job search. When he started using the tool, he said he began hearing from several recruiters about jobs he'd never applied for.
"I got several LinkedIn InMails a day, every single day, since mid-October, from recruiters, hiring managers, and C-suites of companies," he said, adding, "This was something that never happened to me before."
Guilherme said that he believes applying for so many jobs "boosted" his LinkedIn profile in the platform's algorithm β making it easier for recruiters to find him.
"With my account's activity being through the roof, my profile was boosted up in searches, which led to my new boss finding me," he said.
A LinkedIn spokesperson told BI that applying to more roles would not make a person's profile more visible to a recruiter. The spokesperson said that job seekers who keep their profiles up to dateare more likely to hear from recruiters.
The spokesperson said that the company doesn't permit the use of third-party software β such as bots β that scrapes or automates activity on LinkedIn.
Guilherme recommended that AIHawk users spend time filtering out job titles that aren't a good fit and use interviews as an opportunity to practice their communication skills β which could help them land a job down the road.
Overall, Guilherme said the biggest perk of AIHawk was the time it saved him.
"Imagine if I had to do this manually?" he said, referring to the resumes he submitted with AIHawk. "I'd probably go insane."
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