Photo/Illutration A review posted on a job search engine had been copied from another platform and modified using artificial intelligence. (Captured from the website)

A job search engine for child care workers has been accused of using artificial intelligence to copy and modify online reviews about employers.

The Tokyo-based company had been scraping review data from other job search engines without authorization, and then altering the text using AI to make it appear as if the reviews were original content.

Last week, the company admitted to The Asahi Shimbun that it had collected data from two rival platforms and created around 1,000 fake reviews, which were then posted on its own site.

The company has since removed all the fabricated reviews and pledged to apologize to the affected companies.

The 26-year-old president of the company attributed the misconduct to a lack of compliance awareness.

Founded in 2020, the firm is based in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward and currently employs fewer than 100 people.

The job board currently lists about 40,000 child care facilities, with more than 10,000 reviews.

According to a research firm, the company generates revenue by connecting job seekers with child care providers and receiving a fee from employers upon successful placements.

Online reviews from former and current employees are valuable assets for job search engines, as they provide critical insights that help job seekers make informed decisions when selecting a job.

While web scraping is a common method for gathering data online, it can be illegal in certain cases.

Kensaku Fukui, a lawyer specializing in internet law, pointed out that mass-producing content based on original articles for the purpose of publication could be considered a violation of copyright law.

(This article was written by Yoichiro Kodera and Hiroshi Nakano.)

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