LinkedIn Fights Mediocre AI Content with New Tool

LinkedIn Responds to Criticism Over AI Content

For several years, LinkedIn users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the quality of AI-generated content on the platform. These posts, often perceived as superficial or irrelevant, have sparked increasing criticism.

In response to these concerns, LinkedIn announced on Thursday the launch of a new tool that allows users to report suspicious posts. This new tool provides the option to mark a post as "seems to be bad AI," thereby facilitating the identification of problematic content.

The Proliferation of AI Content on Social Media

The term "bad AI" refers to the proliferation of content generated by generative AI tools, which are flooding social media like an oil spill. This content, often of low added value, clutters users' news feeds. Social media platforms, including LinkedIn, are striving to contain this wave of low-quality content.

A report from the research firm Pangram recently highlighted the extent of this phenomenon. According to the report, one-quarter of posts on social media are generated by AI. Among these, nearly 62% appear on LinkedIn, while on X (formerly Twitter), about half of the articles contain AI-generated elements.

A Tool to Report Suspicious Content

With this new feature, users can now report posts they find suspicious by clicking on the three dots next to a post and selecting "seems to be bad AI." This feature was initially spotted by 404 Media.

Hari Srinivasan, product director at LinkedIn, explained that this initiative is part of a broader effort by the company to identify and limit the spread of low-quality content generated by AI. By allowing users to report these posts, LinkedIn hopes to refine its detection models and improve the quality of news feeds.

Adjustments in AI Usage on LinkedIn

Meanwhile, LinkedIn has decided to remove the "enhance with AI" option that was available when drafting a post. This option will be replaced by a feature that rephrases users' words without substantially rewriting them with AI.

Srinivasan also mentioned that LinkedIn has detected "hundreds of thousands of attempts at automated comments" and has blocked billions of other attempts to use automated posts, often generated with the help of AI, on its platform. These measures aim to reduce the impact of automated content and enhance the user experience.