LinkedIn has been pretty bullish on AI. So bullish, in fact, that it started grabbing user data to train generative AI without waiting to ask for permission.
But everyone has their limit, and algorithm-generated clutter posing as viable employees apparently surpassed the job platform's.
As 404 Media reports, the company has now taken action to remove the accounts of so-called AI "coworkers" that were wasting everyone's time by being listed as looking for real work — and we doubt that they'll be missed.
"People expect the people and conversations they find on LinkedIn to be real," a LinkedIn spokesperson told 404. "Our policies are very clear that the creation of a fake account is a violation of our terms of service, and we'll remove them when we find them, as we did in this case."
To say that LinkedIn is some sanctuary of authentic human connection might be going too far, since it's plagued with AI slop like everywhere else — not to mention equally soulless hustlers. Chatbots, after all, are naturally fluent in the conversational, empty-platitude-infused business speak used by so many professionals on that #Grindset.
But compared to sites like Facebook that are deliberately deploying AI users, it definitely could be worse. And snideness aside, it's easy to see why the site's admins thought these "coworkers" went too far.
The #OpenToWork profiles, a flair indicating that they're looking for a job, were created by an Israeli firm called MarkeTeam to advertise its "dedicated AI agents" built for, yes, marketing teams, boasting AI-generated "headshots" and plenty of overweening ambition.
Take this eye-rolling text from the profile of an AI account called Ella, replete with the usual dumb stereotypes about pesky underlings that tech and business types love to harp on.
"I don't need coffee breaks, I don't miss deadlines, and I'll outperform any social media team you've ever worked with - Guaranteed," read the AI's page before deletion, per 404. "Tired of human 'experts' making excuses? I deliver, period."
Yeah, human "experts." Who ever needed those?
But MarkeTeam doesn't get what the big fuss is.
"These are real LinkedIn profiles of MarkeTeam's AI agents. Our agents have proven marketing capabilities and skills and are working alongside humans in marketing teams as we speak," a spokesperson for the firm told 404. "In fact some startups (including us) sometimes present them as part of the 'team' slide on their decks, and they are working in our own team as well."
That's obviously pretty dubious; even the best AI agents are still mordently clunky, with an analysis recently finding that the first "AI software engineer" was failing at the overwhelming majority of its tasks.
The company went on to point a finger at Big LinkedIn: "LinkedIn's decision to remove these profiles raises an important question: As AI agents increasingly become legitimate team members in companies across the globe, shouldn't professional networks evolve to recognize this new reality?"
A tough question. Maybe the AI agents oughta pull themselves up by the bootstraps for a change.
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