We Insist You Use AI. Some Candidates Froze.

Steven Syrek added a round where AI is not merely allowed but required, and found some engineers avoid it entirely. Here’s what DeepL realised it was actually testing.

Steven Syrek is an engineering manager at DeepL, the language AI company behind the translator, and he decided to reimagine hiring rather than patch it. He explains what hiring for AI natives means in practice, why a round he insists AI be used in ends up measuring mindset rather than output, and how both sides of the table have responded. For anyone rebuilding an interview loop while the way their own team builds software is still moving.