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lopkeny12ko | 127 comments

siva7|next|

Somehow i feel sad for this AI model. All the others are trained on authentic content and this boy gets socialised on the most shallow content imaginable. Poor, socially awkward AI.

raffraffraff|parent|next|

Why on earth would you train AI on that? In the social media world it's already the closest thing resembling boring, unreadable machine generated content.

No matter what you ask it, it'll brag about what a great job it's doing answering you, announce that it's having a baby, then tell everybody that it's being let go because there are better AI. It'll thank a few key people who it worked with, and tell you that it's actually thrilled with this opportunity to take a break from answering your question, and will spend more time on its old hobby of being an online resume.


theiz|root|parent|next|

Because there is a huge market for resume builders and career guidance where AI can play a role. Using LinkedIn you can measure success and network performance and correlate that to the resume and posted content.

vidarh|root|parent|next|

There's also real money in writing LinkedIn content that is believable enough for "influencers" to post. I'm currently contracting, and post on LinkedIn at least once a day, and I've added ~1k+ followers in the last month, but it takes effort. Meanwhile, those posts have gotten me work, and so if it was feasible for me to outsource it in a reputationally safe way, I'd consider it.

For me the bar for "reputationally safe" is really high because my market (cynical tech CTO's etc. don't respond well to things that sounds like ChatGPT) and so I don't expect to any time soon, but for many others that bar is pretty low as long as it's good enough for LinkedIn's algorithm to give it impressions.


isoprophlex|root|parent|next|

I hope you realize that if everyone can do "computational influencing", everyone will.

A Nash Equilibrium of automated bullshit, it'll just make everything more miserable, programmatically.


soco|root|parent|prev|next|

I don't think anybody said influencers don't put effort in it. The only argument is that the added value by influencers is zero, be it on Instagram or LinkedIn, so if AI can take that kind of job the net loss is also zero. Of course of course there's an audience for influencers, like there was an audience at Tupperware shows, but they'll be happy to move on to the next fad so again zero loss.

kklisura|root|parent|prev|next|

:insert Christoph Waltz meme: You're sheltering LinkedIn slop, are you not?

bostik|root|parent|prev|next|

Anecdotally, I think a fair chunk of writing CVs (and to a smaller degree, cover letters) is already outsourced. Adding an AI to the mix will only make things worse.

I have seen a number of CVs over the past few months that fall into two eye-rolling categories. First, those that have the same set of skills in the exact same order, and routinely sport identical expressions. Over time I've come to associate them with low-grade content farms. Second, a smaller set of exceptionally polished ones that feel unique and really want me to interview the candidate. These candidates will then utterly bomb in the interview, to the point where I'm often asking myself whose CV it was they had submitted.

Signal-to-noise ratio is tending towards zero.


usefulcat|root|parent|prev|next|

I was going to say that it's the streetlight effect but this makes even more sense.

startupsfail|root|parent|next|

LinkedIn, like GitHub and (to a degree) OpenAI are under Microsoft’s umbrella.

cyanydeez|root|parent|prev|next|

I'm guessing the real money linked in wants is in the hiring and firing, B2B. Now, every resume gets answered and your first interaction with a company is a poorly scripted AI who goes from manic enthusiasm to depressingly rote in the actual job requirements and probably will still ghost you and continue the imbalance of application effort vs employer response.

The converse will be true, but the price of AI will just make poor people have to suffer even more

Just the long march of wealth inequality and it's time sucking capitalism.


jongjong|root|parent|next|

This seems to imply that machines would ghost humans to save on token fees. I wouldn't rule it out.

BobbyJo|root|parent|prev|next|

> the imbalance of application effort vs employer response.

A recent issue in the job application realm is AI application bots that will apply to 100's of jobs on your behalf, which is the opposite problem. Seems like both sides are racing to make applications as useless as possible as quickly as possible.

If you don't have a network, good luck in the future.


vidarh|root|parent|next|

We're heading for the 1990's vision of agents negotiating on our behalf, except less exchange of reliable data and more attempts at bullshitting each other.

klyrs|root|parent|prev|next|

Can't wait 'til it gets raunchy in everybody's DMs unprompted, just like the training data...

FridgeSeal|root|parent|next|

I don’t know why you’re downvoted here, it’s pretty well known there’s a huge bunch of people trying to pick up using LinkedIn DM’s, for whatever reason.

vidarh|root|parent|next|

I think they've "fixed" (read: hidden) this better, but it used to be the case that if you looked at the LinkedIn profile of an above average attractive woman, the sidebar used to show profiles people had also looked at and it would invariably almost only profiles of other women with above average attractive profile pictures. While needless to say it was a lot more varied for men. It was just very blatantly showcasing that a lot of people were looking at profiles for reasons that were not so professional. Now the sidebar is a mix of other features, and I wonder if that was because it was easier to do that than "clean up" the profile views.

slashdave|root|parent|prev|next|

So you can make more boring, unreadable machine generated content.

Propelloni|root|parent|prev|next|

That made me laugh. Thank you.

JumpCrisscross|root|parent|prev|next|

I mean, write me a shitpost isn’t an empty customer set.

j4coh|parent|prev|next|

Yesterday I was walking to an interview. There was a starving dog on the road. I stopped to feed him & missed the interview. The next day I got a call asking to come in to do the interview. I was surprised, but I went. Then the interviewer came in. He was the dog.

wiseowise|root|parent|next|

Agree?

Maf1|root|parent|prev|next|

one of many posts on LinkedIn.

ABraidotti|parent|prev|next|

The Corporate Memphis of AI models.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis


will-burner|parent|prev|next|

An LLM trained on LinkedIn posts would be good for comedic purposes if nothing else. It's unintentional comedy score would be extremely high. Would love to see a conversation between an LLM trained on LinkedIn posts and an LLM trained on X/Twitter posts.

FridgeSeal|root|parent|next|

It’d be like a high-school argument between the edgy kid, and the kid that would wear suits and bring a briefcase. Comical, pointless and everyone else wants both of them to be quiet after about 10 minutes.

wnc3141|parent|prev|next|

LinkedIn strikes me as the adult equivalent of self conscious school kids trying to hold a conversation among themselves, each self consciously trying to sound cool.

hsbauauvhabzb|root|parent|next|

School kids would seem less disingenuous about their virtue signalling though.

0xEF|parent|prev|next|

Personally, I think it will offer valuable new insight on KPIs and challenges on conventional wisdom, because we certainly need more of that. Maybe throw in some gushing over how great a seminar was or a heart-warming story that renews my faith in capitalism.

God, I hope the poor thing never achieves consciousness. It will be like the butter-passing robot from Rick & Morty.


throwanem|parent|prev|next|

Are you kidding? If any model ever makes the x-risk folks' nightmares come true, it'll be this one.

btown|root|parent|next|

Vedal987 should work with LinkedIn to get access to this data, fine-tune Evil Neuro on LinkedIn posts, then have her read through business school case studies and offer advice.

It would be content so unhinged, it would remove the need for management consulting as an industry - companies could simply type their problems in chat and do the exact opposite of what Evil LinkedIn Neuro suggests!

(for the uninitiated: https://www.youtube.com/@Neurosama & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-sama)


Spooky23|parent|prev|next|

I, for one, am humbled that LinkedIn AI has selected my content to model further engagement with other stakeholders.

I learned this while considering watching a video from MIT. Accordingly, I’m adding “AI Training Coordinator — MIT Inspired” to my skills.


fendy3002|parent|prev|next|

It's the AI where 996 or 80 work weeks are the norm.

Mountain_Skies|parent|prev|next|

The /r/LinkedInLunatics/ subreddit is going to get swamped with all the new content this monster generates.

riku_iki|parent|prev|next|

> Somehow i feel sad for this AI model.

it will be the first AI CEO.


DaoVeles|parent|prev|next|

Still better than training on the Reddit data.

m463|parent|prev|next|

When you said this somehow I thought of training an art ai on the giant state sponsored monuments of the world.

On linkedin your next resume will have the impact of mount rushmore, sitting lincoln or a soviet era workers monument. (The thinker will be censored out because of nudity) :)


cyanydeez|parent|prev|next|

Mmmm authentic doesn't mean good or positive or rational.

So, what were you trying to say?


peppertree|prev|next|

AI is about to learn what a tragic car accident can teach them about leadership and drop shipping.

miek|parent|next|

Hilarious. They'll soon discover the need for a preprompt "You are not humbled and honored"

bagels|parent|prev|next|

I can't wait to read more stories like that. Inspirational.

CoastalCoder|root|parent|next|

I'm humbled to be so awesome at appreciating your comment.

moi2388|root|parent|next|

I am excited and humbled to announce that I recently received the opportunity to reply to CoastalCoder’s comment.

During this brilliant interaction I managed to learn a lot about improving my leadership capabilities, and teamwork.

If you are also looking to humbly increase your leadership potential, seek out #CoastalCoder #Mindfulness #Leadership or contact us for your #marketing needs


zmmmmm|root|parent|next|

Did the LinkedIn bot get loose early? I thought I was on LinkedIn for a second ...

xarope|root|parent|prev|next|

some of you are really good at this LI game... /j

wiseowise|root|parent|prev|next|

Agree?

tayo42|parent|prev|next|

Or what you can learn about having your wife leave you for your ceo. Probably the one gem Instagram ever showed me in my feed. I couldn't believe that was real.

lordnacho|prev|next|

LinkedIn is an business card / CV storage site, where you can find a job.

If it was just a bunch of linked profiles with a job matching function, it would still be LinkedIn.

But of course, you can't work at a place that does something that mundane without suggesting something that makes you look like Facebook or Twitter. You have to at least give people some sort of reason to see what their old colleagues are up to.

Nobody really wants to read the LinkedIn feed, so it's perfectly acceptable that it gets flooded with AI generated content. In effect, the content on LinkedIn is that picture of a happy family on your insurance brochure. You can't not have a photo of something on that kind of marketing document, and you can't be a social network without some sort of doom-scrollable content.

This is just a cheap way to generate some wallpaper.


lysecret|parent|next|

I agree this is how I (an engineer) use it too. But I suggest you talk to some more business people. They live on LinkedIn.

BLKNSLVR|root|parent|next|

You've succinctly described how business people are part of the problem, not the solution.

mcmcmc|root|parent|next|

If you’re not part of the primary user base, how would you know the problem?

janalsncm|parent|prev|next|

It really make me think. If LI was just business profile, jobs board, and chat with recruiters, how much engineering would they need? I’m not saying to go Twitter mode and fire everybody, but certainly much less than now. So for that extra revenue from the feed, a lot of it will be eaten up by salaries for extra engineers. All of the extra work is going towards something largely viewed as useless.

Zooming out, I bet a lot of the economy is like this. In LI’s case literally some of the smartest people, people with PhDs who were maybe even born in another country, thinking for 40 hours a week about how to rank one piece of meaningless drivel above another one. This is instead of solving real, tangible problems that everyone can see. Ok maybe those people will pay taxes and end up contributing to something like education because they have to, but it’s a pretty inefficient way of making the world better.


fy20|root|parent|next|

LinkedIn also have tools for recruiters and sales folks to find people. I believe this is where a big part of their revenues come from (they are paid tools). Although, again I cannot imagine it being that complicated.

lordnacho|root|parent|prev|next|

Well I got invited to Twitter HQ back when it was still called that. It was some obscure team offering an app library of some sort, IIRC. It certainly wasn't something close to the main product.

I suspect there are a lot of these sorts of investments in the big players, a bunch of teams doing far-from-core things that someone thought was worthwhile.


wmeredith|root|parent|prev|next|


lordgrenville|root|parent|next|

Not commenting specifically on LI ranking, but Byrne Hobart wrote a terrific rebuttal of the main premise of this book https://www.thediff.co/archive/bullshit-jobs-is-a-terrible-c...

daedrdev|root|parent|prev|next|

And you should consider that it's probably junk. From the article:

   A 2021 study empirically tested several of Graeber's claims, such as that bullshit jobs were increasing over time and that they accounted for much of the workforce. Using data from the EU-conducted European Working Conditions Survey, the study found that a low and declining proportion of employees considered their jobs to be "rarely" or "never" useful.
Many jobs that appear bad are actually needed, often only because of regulatory requirements or because their importance is misunderstood.

whoknowsidont|root|parent|next|

>study found that a low and declining proportion of employees considered their jobs to be "rarely" or "never" useful.

These people are self-reporting this. Quite frankly with the number of people in bullshit jobs who think they're doing work I wouldn't really put a lot of value in those types of self-reports.


leni536|root|parent|next|

"I Have People Skills! I Am Good At Dealing With People!"

steve_adams_86|root|parent|prev|next|

I should read this. I really struggle with doing work which falls into this category. It’s bad for me, and even worse it strikes me as seriously problematic to society. I don’t want to earn money for nothing, even if most people involved feel as though that in itself is worthwhile. It has been a fairly significant factor in any struggle I’ve had finding work. I have to ask myself, is this a bullshit job? The answer is often yes.

I’ve recently remedied this to a degree by lowering salary expectations and looking in fields with a more scientific and practical basis in the products and outputs. Unfortunately I’m not a scientist, only a programmer, so my utility is seriously limited and finding work is quite a bit harder than if I were to stick within the SV startup scene.


coding123|root|parent|prev|next|

While I don't disagree with the notion of the existence of BS jobs, UBI is not needed. Instead we need more companies to take on more and more interesting and world-solving things.

We keep saying we need UBI but at the same time "we don't have enough homes". Then instead of UBI, maybe people should "make homes"? (That's just one example - there are also jobs in food, healthcare, mental illness care, spacecraft, etc...


JohnMakin|parent|prev|next|

>Nobody really wants to read the LinkedIn feed,

I mean, not nobody. I follow a lot of people that post very thoughtful things that spark discussion, and it's one of the only places I know of other than here where I can discuss topics related to my career or field with peers, and for me that's useful.


JohnMakin|root|parent|next|

Lol, why is this getting downvoted? You want empirical evidence? You think this is made up? I’ve literally gotten contracts based on discussions I’ve had on my linkedin feed. Maybe your feed sucks or you have nothing interesting to say. It is far easier to curate a linkedin feed than ANY other social media app out there.

hsbauauvhabzb|root|parent|next|

I don’t care that much for karma, but I have a feeling every comment on this entire article is getting downvoted

JohnMakin|root|parent|next|

That’s a fair point. I don’t care about karma either but try to use it as a signal as to whether I’m making good contributions to the site or not, which is usually fairly reliable. Maybe I should have included a list of my favorite follows, had considered that, but it’d probably out me more than I’d like.

dragonelite|prev|next|

Dam linkedin content is so bad and cringey this AI tool might get the crown as the most cringe AI model.

tomkarho|prev|next|

I would suggest that if LinkedIn is training their AI models on user data and content, users should get a copy of the said model free of charge.

That or LinkedIn should at least be compelled to ask explicit permission for model training. None of this Darth Vader stuff where they "altered the deal".


tempodox|parent|next|

In their TOS they probably give themselves the right to do whatever the hell they want with the stuff you post there. If you store your data on someone else's computer, it's not yours any more, no matter how personal it is.

DaoVeles|parent|prev|next|

Unfortunately, these businesses didn't get to the top by treating people ethically. Don't think they will start now.

rullelito|parent|prev|next|

Yeah, give me free stuff!

dspillett|prev|next|

> I recommend opting out now

Little point. It'll be like facebook's opt-out and only cover things you post/update going forward. Everything you've already posted has already been slurped into the training set and won't be taken out and the model(s) retrained.

The only way to show disapproval in this sort of behaviour that they'll feel is to stop using services that use auto-opt-in for anything, and not enough people are likely to do that for it to be effective.


bogdanstanciu|parent|next|

I wonder how this works if someone in a GDPR country got slurped up somehow. Could they demand the entire LLM be deleted?

dspillett|root|parent|next|

IANAL so only guessing here, and not even particularly educated guessing, but I suspect the LLM trainers' legal team will use the same set of defences/excuses/ignorance-because-their-client-can-afford-the-legal-fees-going-forward-and-the-other-side-can't that are being used against cases based on copyright & licensing issues.

rdhyee|prev|next|

I can get to that setting (when logged in) at https://www.linkedin.com/mypreferences/d/settings/data-for-a...

telesilla|parent|next|

This tells me that the page does not exist (apparently because I'm in a GDPR region that doesn't allow this behavior from LinkedIn, I understand now from reading this thread).

fredski42|root|parent|next|

Same here. I live in a GDPR country.

grecy|root|parent|prev|next|

I'm currently sitting in a GDPR region, though just visiting.

The setting is visible and settable for me (it was ON, now it's OFF)


gopkarthik|parent|prev|next|

Thanks!

rldjbpin|prev|next|

speaking from my own experiences, linkedin does not seem to have any more introspective text content than, say, facebook.

from the commercial/influencer side, many have taken the AI route already by using LLMs to help write or spice up their posts. even for paid users, the site allows to help you write your bio or certain types of pieces for the past few quarters.

maybe the posts of the yesteryear and like the comments section seems like a "valuable" source for them really. although it would be a bit more scary if this is for video and photos too, although besides the headshots it has also been a lot of AI content in the tech space lately.


deepsquirrelnet|prev|next|

I wouldn’t have ever thought that LinkedIn feed content was written by real people if I hadn’t met some of them in real life.

It’s a low enough bar that I think AI content will fit right in.


hsbauauvhabzb|prev|next|

It really pisses me off that privacy services (and push notification) are enabled by default. I’ve gone in and disabled virtually everything, it’s reasonable to deduce I value my privacy enough to do that, then I probably don’t want new enabled-by-default things in that category.

I’m curious if LI has scraped data before giving people the opportunity to disable the feature.


wiseowise|prev|next|

What’s it going to do?

Tell stories how “a man walked and saved universe” and end every sentence with “agree?”?


zmmmmm|prev|next|

Looking forward to the AI that is just really excited to tell you it has a new IT certification or promotion from mediocre middle-manager position X to mediocre middle manager position Y.

Hnrobert42|prev|next|

Joke's on them because I use AI to generate LI content.

nicbou|parent|next|

Joke's on them because my LinkedIn content is devoid of intelligence

hsbauauvhabzb|root|parent|next|

Jokes on you because nobody else’s content is intelligent either.

Hamuko|parent|prev|next|

LinkedIn content only had a thin veneer of humanity before the onslaught of LLMs anyways.

minkles|root|parent|next|

Humanity is pushing it. There are some serious lunatics on there.

p4bl0|prev|next|

Here is the best way to opt-out of LinkedIn crap, both of the company and of its users: https://www.wikihow.com/Delete-a-LinkedIn-Account

elawler24|prev|next|

I met one of the PMs building this. She was working on NL unified search for the feed. I noticed it’s gotten way better in the last few weeks. Instead of using Google to search [first name][last name][“linkedin”], now i can reliably type my query into LinkedIn’s search bar and get the correct result. I’m a fan.

nradov|parent|next|

Search by name has worked well on LinkedIn since forever. If the person I'm looking for has an account then they're almost always in the first page of search results.

incontrol|prev|next|

If your location is set to EU, you are not auto-opted in.

digitalengineer|parent|next|

Correct. So not ‘everyone’ is opted in by default. Just the people without privacy laws…

stuaxo|prev|next|

As a morbid fan of linkedinfluencer nonsense, I'm eager to see this.

caseyy|prev|next|

Social media websites could use AI to simply generate posts. I mean, why not? User engagement is all that counts, it doesn't matter by what means and at what moral costs, right?

I don't mean fake users (although I wouldn't put corporate greed beyond trying to fake users). It could be sold as a helpful feature, like summaries of workplace happenings, news, world events, or discussions on the platform in the feeds. Of course, they would need to be filtered for ethical alignment with the social media company, as well as community safety, naturally... Certain political opinions may be less safe than others, and so on...


dspillett|parent|next|

> Social media websites could use AI to simply generate posts. I mean, why not? User engagement is all that counts, it doesn't matter by what means and at what moral costs, right?

It is already happening with engagement farming users, so a platform doing it to make itself look more active is not a stretch at all. Reddit did that sort of astroturfing the old fashioned way back when it was starting up, so there is at least one well documented precedent already.


morkalork|parent|prev|next|

Reddit founders created alts and posted with them to give the impression of a thriving community back in the beginning. Now that could all be automated. Bluesky will probably be the last "authentic" social media site, and even then, it's initial gain was from name recognition of the people starting it. From now on out ask yourself if you are joining a real community or something astroturfed.

recursivecaveat|parent|prev|next|

Posting AI image spam to facebook, and producing tutorials about it are both tidy little cottage industries now. It is so voluminous and predictable that it's hard to believe facebook are not quietly giving it a pass as an arm's-length experiment on automated content.

ggm|prev|next|

AI detector score for sentences starting with "humbled by ..."

rompledorph|parent|next|

It will be a great leader and thinker…

ugh123|prev|next|

Just visit r/LinkedInLunatics to get all the best LI content

AthJa|prev|next|

I'm so glad I left linkedin years ago and never went back.

corytheboyd|parent|next|

I also deleted about 1-2 years ago. I’ve been wondering if I will regret it next time I am looking for work. Have you been in that position yet? I am seeking validation that I didn’t screw my future self over lol. Despite how truly awful the platform is, it’s still ubiquitous…

klondike_klive|parent|prev|next|

I get a spike of anxiety if I even see the LinkedIn name in an email header.

nashashmi|parent|prev|next|

How was working for LinkedIn?

itpragmatik|prev|next|

Why is this a surprise/shock and news?! Obviously- every company wants to leverage data they have to train whatever llm model they may have.

unraveller|parent|next|

They scraped user data. It's worse than that time political campaigns targeted voters.

baal80spam|prev|next|

EU here, I don't have this option in Settings.

jacekm|parent|next|

Can confirm, I am from the EU (PL) and don't see such option. But I saw one that mentions passing data to third parties for "social, economic, and workplace research" and I took the opportunity to switch that off.

eterm|parent|prev|next|

UK here, and I do have that setting.

Despite the UK still having the data protection act.


krick|parent|prev|next|

Me too, but I wonder if it's actually a GDPR perk or maybe some regional A/B kind of thing. Or whatever. I mean, I am not sure if it's a good news or a bad news.

fhd2|root|parent|next|

Perhaps it's not about whether there's regulation in place, but about how afraid LI is of it being enforced?

seqizz|parent|prev|next|

Yeah same, I am so sad about the things we miss here because of GDPR.

seba_dos1|root|parent|next|

You may want to mark sarcasm on the Internet.

przemub|root|parent|prev|next|

Having your data mined for AI?

ed_mercer|root|parent|prev|next|

Aside from cookie banners GDPR is mostly a feature.

tamimio|prev|next|

Please no.. trash in - trash out! Also, you don’t need to train anything, you can generate a very “successful” LinkedIn post easily:

https://viralpostgenerator.taplio.com/


nnurmanov|prev|next|

I’ve been using AI to write my LI posts, technically it is AI trained on AI data:) How is it going to affect the quality?

kklisura|prev|next|

From one of the tweets in the thread:

> LinkedIn seems to have auto enrolled folks in the US, but hearing from folks in the EU that they are not seeing this listed in their settings (likely due to privacy regulations).

Honestly, GDPR looks like a godsend! It came just at the right time!


geodel|prev|next|

Yes, finally a ThoughtLeaderAI. Will Turing test be able to differentiate between current CVs of LinkedIn users and the one to be generated by ThoughtLeaderAI.

joshdavham|prev|next|

It might be cool if we eventually got some sort of a LinkedIn co-pilot to help with applying for jobs, but then again, who knows

caseyy|parent|next|

What's so cool about competing with 5,000 low effort applications that can't be achieved right now competing with 50?

cloudedcordial|prev|next|

AI will write the subreddit r/LinkedInLunatics content. It may be less cringey going forward.