LinkedIn becomes the latest platform to crack down on AI content

When it rains, it pours. After Substack took on "Claudefishing" and TikTok rolled out tools to spot AI-generated video, LinkedIn has become the latest platform to introduce measures aimed at curbing synthetic content on its site.

The company is testing a new reporting tool that lets users flag posts that "seem like AI slop," according to an update from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan. Flagged posts will see their algorithmic reach reduced in a similar way to posts marked "not interested," a LinkedIn spokesperson said.

"AI slop is a top priority for all of us," Srinivasan wrote. "People come to LinkedIn to connect with real people and share their real perspectives, ideas and expertise."

The reporting tool builds on LinkedIn's existing automated defences. Srinivasan said the company is already catching "hundreds of thousands" of automated comment attempts every day and has blocked "billions" of other automation attempts over the past few months.

The changes also mark a shift in LinkedIn's own approach to AI writing. It is scrapping its "Rewrite with AI" button in favour of a new feature that "proofreads your words, but does not change your voice."

"We asked ourselves why do people post with AI anyway," Srinivasan wrote. "The answer is LinkedIn isn't a one-word kind of place and they feel more confident running their posts through AI."

The update comes as LinkedIn has gained a reputation as one of the platforms most saturated with synthetic writing. Research from AI detection company Pangram found more than 40% of LinkedIn's long-form posts were fully machine-generated – the highest rate of any site it studied. Despite accounting for around a third of the posts analysed, LinkedIn represented almost two-thirds of everything Pangram flagged across its dataset.

Several platforms are taking matters into their own hands. Last week, Substack introduced its own transparency tool, allowing readers to check whether posts, notes, comments and replies longer than 100 words were written by a person or with AI assistance.

Announcing the feature, chief executive Chris Best coined the term "Claudefishing" to describe passing off machine writing as human thought, warning that when readers have to question whether what they're reading is real, it undermines trust in authorship.

TikTok has also introduced measures this month to help people spot synthetic material, including a new in-app learning hub and expanded work with Content Credentials, a system that helps trace the origin of AI media. The company said it has already labelled more than three billion videos as machine-made, describing the resulting spam as "crowding out original creators."