LinkedIn Fights AI Slop, Now 40% of Its Long-Form Posts (cnn.com) 33
"Even LinkedIn is getting tired of your AI-written posts," writes CNN, reporting that the Microsoft-owned, job-oriented social media site "is upping its fight against slop."
A report published in July by Pangram, a research firm that tracks AI content online, found that more than 40% of long-form posts on the platform were AI-generated, compared to around 30% on X and Medium and a smaller percentage on Reddit and Substack.... LinkedIn previously offered AI tools to edit or rewrite posts, although it recently scaled the offerings back. But low-quality AI posts are a business problem for LinkedIn. They all start to sound the same, [according to LinkedIn Editor-in-Chief Dan Roth Roth]. If users see too many generic AI posts, instead of content that really teaches them something or gives them a deeper understanding of a professional connection, LinkedIn risks losing them to other platforms.
In August, LinkedIn rolled out a button letting users flag when a post "seems like AI slop," which was clicked more than 1 million times within its first two weeks. Now, the company is trying to use its own AI systems to help weed out AI slop on the platform and to remind LinkedIn users how to post like humans. The company built a team largely made up of former journalists and social media experts who have an eye for recognizing generic, sloppy content. These experts help train LinkedIn's AI model on what authentic, useful posts look like. If the model flags a post as low-quality, AI-generated content, it'll be less likely to be distributed beyond that user's direct connections.
Also key to the strategy is a creator management team that acts as "content therapists" for executives, subject matter experts and other LinkedIn users, many of whom have gotten accustomed to the convenience of using AI to write what, on the surface, appear to be polished posts, Roth said. "A lot of times now today, they'll run it through Claude or Gemini or wherever, they'll post it on LinkedIn and it will perform poorly. And then they come to the team and they're like, 'Why did this do badly?'" Roth said. "And the best thing you can do is give it back to them and be like, 'Did you enjoy reading this? Do you see yourself in this?"
The efforts are showing early signs of success. Improvements to LinkedIn's detection systems have resulted in a 40% decline in views of content classified as AI slop, the platform said last month. That's not to say LinkedIn is entirely opposed to AI, Roth said, adding that "not everyone is a born communicator." But failing to edit or personalize content means it's less likely to reach a wide audience on the platform.
In August, LinkedIn rolled out a button letting users flag when a post "seems like AI slop," which was clicked more than 1 million times within its first two weeks. Now, the company is trying to use its own AI systems to help weed out AI slop on the platform and to remind LinkedIn users how to post like humans. The company built a team largely made up of former journalists and social media experts who have an eye for recognizing generic, sloppy content. These experts help train LinkedIn's AI model on what authentic, useful posts look like. If the model flags a post as low-quality, AI-generated content, it'll be less likely to be distributed beyond that user's direct connections.
Also key to the strategy is a creator management team that acts as "content therapists" for executives, subject matter experts and other LinkedIn users, many of whom have gotten accustomed to the convenience of using AI to write what, on the surface, appear to be polished posts, Roth said. "A lot of times now today, they'll run it through Claude or Gemini or wherever, they'll post it on LinkedIn and it will perform poorly. And then they come to the team and they're like, 'Why did this do badly?'" Roth said. "And the best thing you can do is give it back to them and be like, 'Did you enjoy reading this? Do you see yourself in this?"
The efforts are showing early signs of success. Improvements to LinkedIn's detection systems have resulted in a 40% decline in views of content classified as AI slop, the platform said last month. That's not to say LinkedIn is entirely opposed to AI, Roth said, adding that "not everyone is a born communicator." But failing to edit or personalize content means it's less likely to reach a wide audience on the platform.
Nobody actually reads LinkedIn posts (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nobody actually reads LinkedIn posts (Score:4, Interesting)
I stopped using LinkedIn when they seemingly decided my account wasn't about me (despite having obvious and publicly verifiable details right there in the description) and wanted me to verify my ID using one of the US-based services with a questionable reputation to get my access back. That's not going to happen, so I just don't use the site any longer.
As far as I can tell, that has made zero difference to my career, and it's one fewer drain on my time. The only thing I have missed is seeing the occasional good news story where a past colleague has been promoted or the like, but I'm not giving up my government-issued credentials to the US-based data harvesting industry for that.
Re: Nobody actually reads LinkedIn posts (Score:3, Informative)
LinkedIn is just a b2b sales platform. Either you pay them to get sales leads, or you are the sales lead. Basically Microsoft dynamix CRM disguised as a social media platform.
Re: (Score:2)
My bio on linked in for a while had the words "IF YOU MESSAGE ME ABOUT A JOB I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN , SKIN YOU AND EAT YOU". It made absolute zero difference to my job (until the boss told me a client looked me up and was upset lol).
And it defintiely didnt stop all the bots messageing me offering me shitty jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
It made absolute zero difference to my job (until the boss told me a client looked me up and was upset lol).
It was probably the other O'Neil, with one L. He has no sense of humour at all.
And it defintiely didnt stop all the bots messageing me offering me shitty jobs.
I could understand bots and mailing lists. The thing I never understood with LinkedIn was how many real people (usually recruitment agents) had apparently spent the time to read my profile and send me a personalised message, yet still thought I'd be interested in a job paying half the market rate for someone with my skills and experience.
Re: (Score:3)
Same story for Reddit et al.
And it's a losing battle for all of them, because AI slop is going to continue to infest the Internet, especially the user generated content part, more and more over time, drowing out legitimate content. Which is part of the reason why genAI, despite its boosters claim everyone has to use it and the genie is out of the bottle and (insert more BS here) is simply unsustainable and going to crash. The problem with it is that it's taking down the open web with it.
The irony for me is
Re: (Score:2)
No, I'm sure there's plenty of people who do read long form posts - usually the ones who write long form posts.
You have to remember there are a number of people who spend their time on LinkedIn - recruiters, C-suite folks, etc. It's why the long form por
post like humans (Score:1)
to remind LinkedIn users how to post like humans
So in other words, the LinkedIn users are the AI bots, not the humans, and they should continue posting slop as long as the bots and M$ don't get caught?
That's a hilarious joke coming from an AI bot (Score:2)
But as regards the story, the LinkedIn joke I was looking for was something like "Too late. That war has already been lost."
This is the place where it's actually fitting (Score:5, Insightful)
People writing content for content's sake. People trying to be "thought leaders" without doing the thought part. Nobody reads that stuff anyway, they just like it in a big old networking circle jerk.
Re: (Score:2)
It's like a video I saw on YouTube the other week. Someone was talking all about "skills" for their AI agents and how they'd automated so much of their workflow using them. They started the video by kicking off four different tasks for separate agents to show how productive it was to have all this stuff happening in parallel and how it was so quick and easy to organise.
One of the tasks involved producing an infographic about a certain topic, and the AI duly produced one based on a one-liner prompt, taking o
Re: (Score:2)
He has been "acting" the role by replying with AI generated content for almost an year; seems like a swell gig, because to his boss it looks "professional" (skip is not a software engineer).
Failure (Score:2)
Linked in was an attempt to redo the hiring process.
The problem is doing it online is not an advantage. If they had come up with any real advantage, they would have become important.
Re: (Score:2)
I think they would have needed a different economic model to align the interests of employers and employees, but there is a fundamental problem because the time scales are not aligned. The employers should be paying in relation to their longer-term results while most of the employees who are eager to work have shorter time horizons... Until they start thinking at a career level?
I feel like recycling the same joke about aging...
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know what you mean. Look at the improvement in hiring when you can advertise an open position on LinkedIn and get maybe 100x as many applicants as before! OK, probably 99% of them will be completely unqualified for the role and barely capable of pushing the instant application button, but how is that a problem, really? Surely hiring managers can easily filter them out and no qualified applicant will ever get lost in the noise?
LinkedIn is gabage (Score:2)
It went from all ads to mostly slop and ads. LinkedIn is better for spam and scams than it is for anything else.
A few more emails from the "CEO" might just convince me to buy those Apple Gift Cards with my own money right now and send them by SMS or email. I know he's super busy in an important client meeting and I can help him out, and keep my job, with just few gift cards right now.
Re: LinkedIn is gabage (Score:2)
Strange (Score:2)
shut it down (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And they automatically close reports without checking them. Source: has happened to me, job listing redirected to generic "We want you to create an account and upload your resume, and you'll never hear about the job you clicked on from there on."
So reported it. Within 30 seconds (seriously) got a message back from LI saying that my report had been rejected.
Why even bother having a report button if it doesn't do anything?
LinkedIn became slop (Score:2)
LinkedIn was always slop. (Score:2)
Frequent posts are rewarded (Score:2)
Goofy stuff (Score:4, Informative)
Surprised how many people still use it (Score:3)
I deleted my account years ago after the 2012 hack, their security was and (probably still is) shit; couldn't even salt their passwords. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
I look at it from time to time, as much as I can see as a guest, and holy shit it's become just a big circle jerk, people posting self-congratulatory tripe and 'deep thoughts' [sic], thinking they are original and insightful, and so much of it looks like AI or people just stealing and pasting shit from elsewhere.
I'm sure some people still use it for finding jobs, I've only ever found mine from direct references/referrals from people I know and places I've worked. Even when I still had an account, it was annoying how many recruiters would contact me with listings that often had no relation at all to my experience and skills.
AI Psychosis Therapists (Score:2)
Sadly, I'm on LinkedIn (Score:2)
It's a professional near-necessity for me to have a presence on LinkedIn. ...The number of people posting AI crap is disturbingly high - if it's not AI slop, it's fellating AI slop.
Just post the prompt (Score:3)
Rather just post the prompt you gave to AI. It doesn't have to be verbose or elegant.
But atleast itâ(TM)ll get to the point and free of miscommunication
Ouch; oof. Yikes, even!!! (Score:3)
The *WHIPLASH* of these two statements:
'Improvements to LinkedIn's detection systems have resulted in a 40% decline in views of content classified as AI slop, the platform said last month. That's not to say LinkedIn is entirely opposed to AI, Roth said, adding that "not everyone is a born communicator."'
YET -
'Roth said. "A lot of times now today, they'll run it through Claude or Gemini or wherever, they'll post it on LinkedIn and it will perform poorly. And then they come to the team and they're like, 'Why did this do badly?'" Roth said. "And the best thing you can do is give it back to them and be like, 'Did you enjoy reading this? Do you see yourself in this?"'
Essentialism is lame; people are born as a human. So participate. Learn to speak. Learn to read. Don't be illiterate. Don't be inmumerate. Rise above. Master yourself, and in so doing, emancipate yourself.
Use your self-awareness to improve and add to the palette of skills and abilities through your life.
It's not that hard. And I'm a programmer, so you *KNOW* I am the ultra-laziest in terms of applying time and space to problems (aka optimization!).
I get that different people have different priorities, but -- in the way that a radio transceiver is useful IF you know things like frequency, signalling mechanics, signalling protocol -- humans learn languages and use that to reason. To not develop your mind, is to throw away your greatest strength.
Hol up.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Wait, so major AI player upset AI is used on their platform?
Seriously?
Are they even listening to themselves? Not that consistency matters in this timeline anymore..
Why would anyone write on LinkedIn anymore? (Score:3)
LinkedIn has monetized its own authors: If you write an article, LinkedIn won't show it to YOUR OWN FOLLOWERS - people who clicked the link to follow you - unless you pay to "Boost" it. If you don't pay, only a pathetic number of your followers get to see it.
It was not always that way. That is what Microsoft has done to it. So LinkedIn is now "enshittified" as they say.
LinkedIn, rather Microsoft needs that training dta (Score:3)
I got kicked off LinkedIn when I was changing my 2FA app from Microsoft to Zoho.
Now they want me to blink my eyes on some kind of AI video authentication scheme, while showing them some kind of government id. Good luck with that.
Have been in that platform from day one. But never managed to get a job from it NOR ever managed to hire anyone.
They're just burying themselves.
Oh good (Score:2)