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The historic trial of Donald Trump enters its final act Tuesday, with closing arguments to the jury who must then decide whether to hand down the first ever criminal conviction of a former US president.Less than six months before American voters choose whether to return Trump to the White House, the stakes riding on the verdict are hard to overstate -- for the 77-year-old personally, but also for the country as a whole.Trump is accused of falsifying business records to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels about a 2006 sexual encounter between them that could have damaged his 2016 presidential bid.If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison on each of 34 counts, but legal experts say that as a first-time offender he is unlikely to get jail time.Crucially, a conviction would not bar Trump from appearing on the ballot in November as the Republican presidential challenger to Democrat Joe Biden.It has taken nearly five weeks, the testimony of more than 20 witnesses and a few courtroom fireworks to reach closing arguments -- the last chance for the prosecution and defense to impress their case on the anonymous, 12-member jury.As expected, Trump chose not to testify in his defense -- a move that would have exposed him to unnecessary legal jeopardy and forensic cross-examination.For a man who has always prided himself on being in charge and in control, the role of silent, passive defendant did not come easily.At times it has been downright excruciating, especially when Trump was forced to sit and listen while Daniels recounted their alleged encounter in sometimes graphic detail.Speaking to reporters before and after each day in court, Trump launched regular tirades against Judge Juan Merchan -- calling him "corrupt" and a "tyrant" -- and condemned the whole trial as "election interference" by Democrats intent on keeping him off the campaign trail.The politics of the case were in full view in the final days when a coterie of leading Republicans -- including several vice-presidential hopefuls -- came to the court and stood behind Trump in a gesture of support as he spoke to the press.In all, he was cited 10 times for contempt of court and fined $10,000 by Merchan for failing to heed a gag order prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses, the jury, court staff or their relatives.The judge has said he expects closing arguments to take up all of Tuesday.He will then give his final instructions to the jury, who will likely begin their deliberations on Wednesday.To return a guilty or not guilty verdict requires unanimity. Just one holdout means a hung jury and a mistrial.- Other cases -Aside from Daniels, the key prosecution witness was Michael Cohen, Trump's former "fixer" turned bitter foe who arranged the $130,000 hush money payment.Walking jurors through the reasoning behind the payments, Cohen said they were made "to ensure that the story would not come out, would not affect Mr Trump's chances of becoming president of the United States."Trump's defense team devoted most of their questioning trying to discredit Cohen, recalling that he had admitted lying to Congress and spent time in prison for tax fraud.The defense called only two witnesses of their own before resting.In addition to the New York case, Trump has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.He also faces charges in Florida of allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.None of those trials are expected to take place before the November election.

New Delhi: Your job application may get rejected before it reaches a human for review.Companies across sectors are using artificial intelligence tools, including generative AI, for candidate sourcing, resume screening, skills assessment, predictive analytics and bias reduction in their recruitment process. Humans get involved only from the interview stage at some companies, while at some others, GenAI bots help managers conduct interviews.While there are several concerns, ranging from data privacy to risk of discrimination and inability to discover potential in candidates, HR executives say AI is making the hiring process quicker and more efficient for them.Professional services firm Genpact recently launched IMatch, a GenAI-based in-house resume parsing and job-matching engine.110427625Covering 40% of its new hires, AI tools have made the hiring process touchless till the interview stage, said Ritu Bhatia, Genpact's global hiring leader. Use of AI has resulted in a 15% increase in recruiter productivity, and an improvement in the speed to hire from 62 days to 43, Bhatia added.Improved Productivity for CosAI tools help analyse historical data, market trends and internal talent metrics, allowing companies to gain insights into emerging skill demands and talent availability, and develop recruitment strategies to address current and future talent needs.Simplilearn has been deploying ChatGPT — among other AI tools — for over a year to optimise job descriptions, craft proficiency assessments and conduct psychometric tests. “This enables us to reduce time on mundane tasks and improve productivity and efficiency,” said the edtech firm’s chief HR officer, Archana Krishna.According to Rajesh Bharatiya, chief executive of recruitment services provider Peoplefy, GenAI-based tools help customise the process; for instance to send a recruitment mass mailer based on each candidate's unique experiences and background. “Such customisation may require 10 times more time to customise manually,” he said.Infrastructure development firm Welspun Enterprises uses a GenAI bot that assists its executives in taking interviews. “Our hiring efficiencies have improved drastically. Before using the GenAI bot for interviewing, our selection ratio was 15%. Now this rate has increased to 55%, a 40% jump in my selection rate overnight,” chief HR officer Rajesh Jain said, adding: “This is big.”However, at the current stage of its development, experts believe there are certain pitfalls associated with deploying AI in hiring practices.These include ethical considerations about data privacy, algorithmic transparency and the risk of discrimination, lack of soft skills evaluation, bias amplification, and inability to discover potential.