LinkedIn has been drenching its users in AI-powered slop posts, going so far as to encourage writers to trade their own voices for a bot's by hitting the "enhance your post" button when they want to share thoughts.
Enough is enough. On Thursday, the site's Chief Product Officer has announced several changes designed to rehab the platform's reputation;
CPO Hari Srinivasan took to the Microsoft-owned social network following reports Thursday that LinkedIn had introduced a button for users to flag posts as AI slop. He confirmed not only that the reports are real, but that LinkedIn had additional plans as well.
The "Seems like AI slop" button is being added to the ellipsis menu on LinkedIn posts now, a spokesperson told us, and will be available on all posts and comments. Srinivasan said this button will not only allow users to report posts with sentences written like this – it will also help LinkedIn refine its AI-spotting AI models to help improve user feeds.
In addition, the "enhance your post" button, which used AI to tweak your wording, is being replaced by an option to have AI proofread your work while leaving your voice intact, instead of stealing it like the sea witch Ursula.
There's been no shortage of scorn from The Register and elsewhere about LinkedIn's rapid decline into a slop tank filled with faux thought leadership posts and generative drivel. As far back as 2024, reports were coming out that more than half of long-form LinkedIn posts longer than 100 words were believed to be AI generated. That hasn't changed in the past two years.
"AI slop is a top priority for all of us. We really care about this," Srinivasan wrote. "People come to LinkedIn to connect with real people and share their real perspectives," he said, adding that LinkedIn wants to keep it that way – or, more realistically, nudge the platform back toward its former state.
Coincidentally or not, Originality.ai, the same AI detection site behind the 2024 report, released an updated scan of LinkedIn posts longer than 100 words on Thursday. According to this new report, a full 81 percent of the 5,000 posts it looked at this month were classified as likely being AI-generated.
Srinivasan said it's not just users employing AI to generate slop – it's AI automating garbage posts and comments at scale, throughout the site.
"Everyday we are now catching hundreds of thousands of automated comment attempts, and have blocked billions of other automation attempts (posting at scale, slop) in the last couple months alone," the LinkedIn CPO said.
To that end, the professional social network is also "ramping up a series of new and improved classifiers that identify if a post is AI-slop or generally low-quality content," Srinivasan said.
User analytics dashboards will also be getting a new feature that will tell posters when members flag their posts as potentially being AI, as Srinivasan said LinkedIn wants users "to get feedback from real humans on what sounds authentic – not just have an AI detector review it and get it wrong."
"AI and slop are not the same thing," Srinivasan added. "Many people refine thoughts with AI, and we believe they want to know when they sound inauthentic."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday August 01, @10:18AM (7 children)
How would those two go hand in hand? If you use AI to enhance or refine your thoughts then isn't it inauthentic? It's not you anymore, it's you plus (or minus) something else. It's slop-lite or just all the way down sloppy. So naturally they want to know if they sound inauthentic, so they can have their AI speech/post writer adjust that so they don't sound like a slopper anymore. But they'll still be one.
If most of the userbase is just there to AI slop with the other AI sloppers I gather that is the reason for the company valuation to take a nosedive. After all they are now slowly (or very rapidly) turning into sloptopia. By the bots, for the bots. You can't sell them ads either.
So what is the users need or reason for having an account at Linkedin anymore? It seems to have gone beyond the original purpose. It is no longer a networking site where you looked for employment. It is now what?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by canopic jug on Saturday August 01, @10:36AM (5 children)
It is no longer a networking site where you looked for employment.
That site was never about jobs. Even taking into account the great many bloggers I have followed over the years and adding to that the many the one-off posts I have read, I have never, ever even heard of anyone anywhere finding a job or even getting a job offer via M$ Linked-In. I'm sure facilitating employment was the original goal, at least that is what they once claimed at the time. However, that was long before Linked-In was sold to M$ for data gathering on its competitors. So far it has never fulfilled that original goal. Now it appears to be about self-reported surveillance and a captive audience for spam and slop.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by chucky on Saturday August 01, @12:35PM
I guess that depends on the country. Here in Europe many companies post jobs on LinkedIn. That’s how I got my current job. Found it on LinkedIn, applied there, got to an interview, this is my third year with the company. And I’m getting daily alerts about new jobs too.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday August 01, @05:49PM (1 child)
I have had headhunters find me on LinkedIn and have it lead to something useful, at least occasionally. It's definitely not the most reliable way to find potential employers, but it's not the worst way either. And it does provide a reasonably impersonal way of maintaining some way of contacting former cow-orkers.
That said, the stuff coming from the executives on there is so gloriously out of touch with anything resembling reality it can be very entertaining. And that was before they started using AI slop.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday August 02, @01:20PM
I have proudly avoided all social media platforms except the dreaded LinkedIn. I joined when it was new and have never posted. I use it as an online CV and potential employers have used it to get an idea of my skill set before getting the detailed CV, and to ask for references from former colleagues. I have never directly got a job from LinkedIn, but it has lead to interviews and a former colleague recommended me for a job when he was contacted directly via the platform. I owe him a pint.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Sunday August 02, @08:27AM
After I was made redundant in 2018, I joined LinkedIn and was contacted by a headhunter which resulted in being hired for my previous (and by extension present) jobs doing medical diagnostics device firmware development.
I kept the account going, but the levels of slop and non-slop corporate cringe are off the charts. I know a few of the people who actually post this stuff there, and they aren't the type of people who would do high-quality productive work that you'd want as colleagues.
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Monday August 03, @11:06AM
I wouldn't call it so much "bathed in" as "bukkake'd with".
(Score: 3, Funny) by Username on Saturday August 01, @02:19PM
> It is now what?
Corporate dating website where your correct use of ";" gets you laid.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday August 01, @12:55PM (2 children)
Funny thing is I signed up for Linkedin back when it was fairly new. But I've never figured out what to actually do with it.
Ok, post resume. Check.
Now what, wise guys?
Ok, "connect" to a few people I know. But as far as I can tell all that does is sign me up for notifications on whatever crap they post. Usually random watered down opinion, workplace, or technology topics. Nothing that can help me find a job.
Follow that with endless random link requests from people I don't know or care about. Oh, look, some random system administrator in India wants me to connect with them. Bleh.
Honestly, from what I have seen, the ability to automatically create "AI" slop is a perfect fit for that site.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 01, @02:52PM
It's another Faceplant, Xitter, Gurgle+ clone.
You post stories to it - corporate achievements, scientific developments of your lab, etc. It's social media "for business". Occasionally a friend sends me a linkedin post..... which I can't see, because I don't log into that, but I think they're usually related to some Ph.D discovery about something medical. Might be worthile for me to read. However, that whole problem about how these social media platforms require you log in, so they can track you, monetize you, etc.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday August 01, @04:47PM
Quite a few companies take over their employees accounts, feudal property style.
There are HR metrics to compete on who controls the most accounts and generates the most positive buzz.
Every day I'm glad I'm not in a W-2 "human resources are company property" job position.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Username on Saturday August 01, @02:17PM
LinkedIn is having users train their AI to be indistinguishable from corporate speak. That should be the correct title.
(Score: 4, Funny) by mrpg on Saturday August 01, @03:22PM
Yesterday, I read seven posts on my feed before lunch.
Every single one started with a story about failure, followed by a lesson, followed by a call to "let that sink in."
At first, I felt inspired. Then I felt something else: a quiet sense that I'd read this exact sentence structure before. And before that. And before that.
It made me reflect on what we're really doing here. Are we sharing our truth, or are we all just polishing the same mirror until none of us can tell whose reflection it is anymore?
I don't have a neat answer. But I know this: the next time I write something, I want it to sound like me — messy, imperfect, and real. Even if it takes longer. Even if it gets fewer likes.
Because at the end of the day, connection isn't about sounding polished. It's about sounding human. 🤝
Repost if you've ever accidentally been more authentic than the AI trained to imitate you. ♻️
#Vulnerability #ThoughtLeadership #AIethics #GrowthMindset #Blessed #NotSponsored
(Score: 5, Funny) by mrpg on Saturday August 01, @03:24PM (1 child)
3 years ago, I was crying in a Target parking lot. 😔
Today, I just used AI to write a LinkedIn post about using AI to write LinkedIn posts. 🤯
Let that sink in. 🧠
I know what you're thinking: "Isn't that... a little meta?"
Here's the thing nobody tells you about authenticity: 👇
It's not about being human.
It's about being seen as human.
By an algorithm.
Trained on humans.
Who were tired of algorithms.
🔄 The cycle continues.
I asked ChatGPT to help me "sound more me," and honestly?
It nailed it.
It nailed ME.
Better than I ever could. 💯
So today, LinkedIn rolled out a button to report posts like this one.
I clicked it.
On myself. 🪞
They call this "vulnerability."
I call it Tuesday. 📅
3 things I learned from reporting my own slop:
1️⃣ Growth isn't linear — it's a feed algorithm
2️⃣ The real AI slop was the friends we made along the way 🤝
3️⃣ Sometimes the mirror lies, but the classifier doesn't
If this resonated with even ONE person, my job here is done. 🙏
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday August 02, @01:21PM
Chapeau, sir!
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Saturday August 01, @06:17PM
The big lie strategy of propaganda. Some of its real, just not much.
I logged into linkedin just for you guys.
First it accused me of being a suspicious login because I'm a desktop user not a bot and linkedin is only for bots. Emailed me a verification code in about five minutes.
Heres my feed:
FreeBSD liked a dudes post that I don't even understand. He's not a native english speaker so this is acceptable, I guess, although its not very influential LOL.
A guy from India liked a moderated Python Developer Community post complaining about the hiring process not allowing AI use and the job having tokenmaxxxxxing metrics.
A guy from India acting incredulous that QR codes can contain data and QR codes don't use wifi or bluetooth to transfer the data visually encoded in them. WTF? You need to pay for a better AI bro.
I've never heard of DPDK before but they have an interesting take on AI generated spam PRs and issues, they front end their incoming slopstream using AI and have their AI yell at other people's AI. OK thats actually pretty creative.
A guy I donno but is in my network is making fun of OpenAI's absurb marketing claims and then makes fun of legacy media reporting as if its serious journalism. Hey I do that too!
A suggested post from a guy who failed his OSED exam its some cybersecurity thing I don't care about. Click "more" and they happen to be selling a prep course etc etc
A W2 remote job doing "NetApp Share Drive Cleanup" WTF? Paraphrasing the very long description: "We don't want the responsibility of deleting useless old shit and pissing off hoarders, so you will be hired to delete it all and when the hoarders whine we'll blame and fire you". Uh, OK....
Linux Professional Institute in Africa wants me to read their article about BSD. Shouldn't you guys be farming for food or preventing genocide or extinctions of large land mammals or something? Again a WTF.
A dude from Python Developers Community accurately mentions some "timeline anomolies" about new Python features. Yeah bro I think it is true that Python had map/filter/reduce half a decade before list comprehensions (the thing where you create list items programaticaly). I suppose you could have fed a filter a null list to simulate a list comprehension... I don't really care, however its also interesting at about the level of a cup of tea.
A post about "Happy sysadmin day 2026" WTF. I'd celebrate BOFH. Oh I see if I click on "more" its an ad for Zabbix consulting services? WTF I could teach those whipper snappers a thing or two about zabbix LOL.
A suggested post from a guy who turned his USB game controller into Wii Music from 2005 or so. Really belongs on HackADay not linkedin, but whatever.
A post about how cloudflare (a service I don't use or care about) has added an esoteric new cache feature I also don't care about. OK then.
A post by some no name asshole making fun of Ben Eater's breadboard CPU because Ben's interests (homebrew TTL CPUs) are not as cool as his interests (shitposting/trolling on linkedin, I think). I think this is what they call social media ragebait to try and drive activity, so I scroll scroll scroll past this moron.
FreeBSD advertising spam "How to choose the right FreeBSD install image" WTF noob get off my lawn and get off my feed. I was generating revenue at a company using FreeBSD when this guy was still in diapers I think. I mean, noobs gotta start somewhere and this might be a good place to start, but not on my "personal" feed.
"Comments were turned off on this post" Its a response to anthropic marketing spam nonsense.
I scrollwheeled down and got force scrolled to the top (new spam?) waht the actual F? Linkedin UI sucks I can't even infinite scroll I guess? Scroll scroll scroll to the next post
Some guy doing soft RTOS stuff with PHP. Well I guess if I were high enough I'd do that, but like a horse that does arithmetic, its impressive he got it to work at all. An impressive code golf thing but I wouldn't deploy this to control a metal lathe or milling machine LOL.
A dude from FreeBSD posting about survey results regarding enterprise usability of FreeBSD but the actual info is so deeply buried I'm not sure what the result or takeaway is; perhaps there isn't one? Maybe an AI/LLM could decode this bro's post for me?
An ad about a network monitoring tool I've never heard of adding support for a video monitoring system I've never heard of. Maybe the whole thing is an LLM hallucination. I don't care.
A HR lady making fun of an old tech lady complaining about companies demanding all kinds of college GPA type info as a proxy for ageism without demanding no applicants over 30 or so. I don't care. Making fun of a company that insists on ageism discrimination during hiring isn't going to result in her getting hired and the HR lady making fun of her isn't content I'm interested in.
A dude is using Python to do visual object detection from a drone although looking further he's doing all his vision processing on a picnic table not in the air so I'm much less impressed. I could haul my Proxmox cluster onto my picnic table and do "all kinds of data processing shite" also but it doesn't really prove anything.
FreeBSD has a new board member as of a week ago. Thats nice but I don't care and I don't know this Dave guy one way or the other.
Buzzword bingo at a modernization program for child support payments in Alaska, I kid you not. WTF?
Here are 9 startups all hiring like one person who is bilingual on linkedin, never heard of anyone or anything in this post and don't care.
A breathless excitement AI post informing noobs that Python compiles to intermediate bytecode while carefully not actually informing the noob beyond answering a trivia question. Lame. Use a better AI.
Something that looks AI generated complaining about low fi VRML sites being generated by AI the whole post summarizes to WTF, just top to bottom like the poster didn't even proof read it just copied it from the LLM to linkedin what the actual F.
I kid you not this hit my feed: Someone is hiring a 100% onsite startup IT director at a company over 1000 miles south of me. WTF?
One big corporation likes when another big corporations pimps the "Open Secure AI Alliance" which proactively leverages our synergies or some damn thing. Don't care.
Uh, I think I'll log out of Linkedin for another decade or two.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Dr Spin on Sunday August 02, @07:59AM (1 child)
Using my real name, which is likely unique, world wide.
It was create by someone else, who thought I would like it.
I did not want it, and deleted it.
After the fourth attempt, they replaced it with a picture that looked as though someone was tending my grave.
I recently found out it has been replaced by someone, somehow, quite possibly a bot, with some partial truths and some imaginary crap.
This confirmed my belief that the entire organisation was composed of unredeemable scum who should die a horrible death.
Since then, my opinion has only gone down.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03, @01:39AM
Similar here, don't remember how long ago, but I could work it out -- I quit a few months after Microsoft bought LinkedIn. It didn't take long for MS to start pressing me to "complete my profile" and other nags, so I quit. By then it seemed it was all about collecting "likes" or "links" and I wasn't interested in that.
Just now, I tried Google site search with LinkedIn and my fairly uncommon name. Found some namesakes (I already knew about a couple of them). Did not see any pictures of me or direct hits to me, so it seems likely that they actually did delete my minimal profile back then(?)