Artificial intelligence-generated texts are now available all over the Internet. The introduction of automated prose can sometimes change the nature of a website, as when beloved publications are purchased and reviewed by AI content mills. Other times, however, it’s harder to argue that AI has really made a difference. Take a look at LinkedIn for example.
The Microsoft-owned social networking site for business professionals has embraced artificial intelligence, even offering LinkedIn Premium subscribers access to its own in-house AI writing tools that can “rewrite” posts, profiles and direct messages. The initiative appears to be working: More than 54 percent of longer English-language LinkedIn posts were likely created by AI, according to modern analysis shared exclusively with WIRED by AI detection startup Originality AI. It’s just that the corporate writing style of artificial intelligence on the platform can be hard to distinguish from texts written by a human. Thought leader blogging.
Originality scanned a sample of 8,795 public LinkedIn posts of more than 100 words published between January 2018 and October 2024. For the first few years, the exploit of LinkedIn’s AI writing tools was negligible. Then in early 2023 there was a significant raise. “The growth came with the advent of ChatGPT,” says Originality CEO Jon Gillham. At this point, Originality found that the number of likely AI-generated posts had increased by 189 percent; it has since leveled off.
LinkedIn says it does not track how many posts on the site were written or edited using AI tools. “However, we have robust defenses in place to proactively identify low-quality content and exact or near-identical duplicate content. When we detect such content, we take action to ensure that it is not widely promoted,” says Adam Walkiewicz, director of “channel relevance” at LinkedIn. “We see AI as a tool that can help revise a draft or solve a blank page problem, but what matters most are the original thoughts and ideas our members share.”
LinkedIn is used to find modern jobs and keep in touch with former colleagues, which means it is a relatively stable social media platform. But in recent years it has developed its own network influencersand it is surprisingly popular with Generation Z, incl teenagers. Like everywhere else on the Internet, people are hungry for attention on LinkedIn, and startups have realized that they can make money by helping people grow their audiences. There is a cottage industry of LinkedIn AI comment AND post generators to help career-minded individuals create content that will dazzle potential bosses or potential clients. Instead of spending four minutes trying to figure out what tone to use to congratulate a former colleague on their promotion, it now takes four seconds to conjure up an algorithmically generated accolade instead.
However, LinkedIn users who spoke to WIRED say they rely more on general models of huge languages when putting together their LinkedIn posts, rather than bothering with specialized artificial intelligence tools. Content writer Adetayo Sogbesan says she uses Anthropic’s Claude tool to create coarse drafts of posts she creates on behalf of clients in the tech industry. “Of course, there’s a lot of editing to do later,” he says, but the chatbot still “helps me save a lot of time.”