Although there is a lack of diversity in the AI industry [1], these companies are also very small (hundreds of employees) and very hard to get into.

A lot of your arguments sound like guesses or assumptions explaining why you didn't get a job rather than facts. How do you know there is a "Higher bar for correctness in the interview" or they are hiring 'token' engineers/to show DEI quotas etc. without knowing the thought processes of the hirers or how candidates did in interviews?

Most companies that want to have Gen-Z customers or employees don't want to be accused of non diversity. A better way to show discrimination is to highlight the diversity ratios of employees - but as these companies are still very small that may be hard todo.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/16/artificia...

The AI field seems very diverse, maybe you're just handpicking a few companies. I agree to some extent, a lot of small startups are people hiring their friends and anyone who they would want to hang out with, which I guess is where the bias comes in. I don't do well in such environments that mix work and socializing together. It feels a bit cultish with their silly team gatherings. I don't know if there is a way around that. You can try larger companies that are less biased. Regardless you wouldn't want to work in a company that doesn't want you, no matter the reason. It just doesn't work out, and personally I try to be charitable and shrug it off. Eventually you find a good match, or even start something new and set the example.

I think language skills and nationality and maybe first-generation cultural differences are the confounding factor here, not race..

Do you even have LinkedIn scrapings to validate any of this or is it just a pile of insinuation? As the white engineers say the same thing about the non-white ones. You could substitute "white" wherever you have "non-white" and they would write a similar complaint.