Silicon Valley is abuzz about artificial intelligence - software programs that can draw or illustrate or chat almost like a person. One Google engineer actually thought a computer program had gained sentience. A lot of AI experts, though, say there is no ghost in the machine. But what if it were true? That would introduce many legal and ethical questions.

Say you're a job-seeker who's got a pretty good idea of what employers want to hear. Like many companies these days, your potential new workplace will give you a personality test as part of the hiring process. You plan to give answers that show you're enthusiastic, a hard worker and a real people person. Then they put you on camera while you take the test verbally, and you frown slightly during one of your answers, and their facial-analysis program decides you're "difficult." This is just one of many problems with the increasing use of artificial intelligence in hiring, contends the new documentary "Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests," premiering Thursday on HBO Max. The film, from director Tim Travers Hawkins, begins with the origins of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test.