LinkedIn on its way to Artificial Stupidity
LinkedIn, the place which 'connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful’ just announced another amazing feature to enable their members to be even more productive and successful.
LinkedIn's product manager Keren Baruch recently posted this:
'When it comes to posting on LinkedIn, we’ve heard that you generally know what you want to say, but going from a great idea to a full fledged post can be challenging and time consuming. So, we’re starting to test a way for members to use generative AI directly within the LinkedIn share box.
To start, you’ll need to share at least 30 words outlining what you want to say – this is your own thoughts and perspective and the core of any post. Then you can leverage generative AI to create a first draft. This will give you a solid foundation to review, edit and make your own, all before you click post.
Responsible AI is a foundational part of this process so we’ll be moving thoughtfully to test this experience before rolling out to all our members.
We are excited to hear your feedback. Stay tuned for more details.'
Well, Keren, you asked and here is my feedback. This whole idea is generally very stupid.
I am not sure about the invitations you are getting, but thanks to the automation which LinkedIn allows, I am getting invites from things which pretend to exist as people. When I report it, I get a canned response from your customer support team that this account doesn't violate T&C of your service. Now, LinkedIn is releasing another amazing feature to further promote spamming.
Yes, Keren, going from a great idea to a full fledged post is challenging and yes, it is time consuming. There is a reason for it. Before an idea can become a great idea you have to think really hard and you have to work on it. By providing initial 30 words of something and hoping that you get anything amazing based on a collection of content which the AI was trained on, is a lunacy.
But, don't take my word for it, let's demonstrate using ChatGPT.
First prompt 'finish this great idea - I would like to end world hunger by providing free food to every person on Earth. The rich people will pay for the food and it will be distributed for free as well.' (33 words should be enough to make my great idea into a full fledged awesome post)
Answer - Creating a comprehensive plan to end world hunger through a system where the wealthy fund free food distribution is a noble and ambitious idea. To ensure its success, several considerations and steps need to be taken: <it goes to list 12 steps to consider and ends with> By combining these strategies, your vision of ending world hunger through a collaborative effort between the affluent and the underprivileged can be transformed into a comprehensive and sustainable solution. It's essential to approach this challenge with empathy, innovation, and a commitment to making a lasting impact on the lives of millions.
Keren, I think we did it. In a few seconds, I've generated a post with 452 words. I was also told that my idea is not only great but also noble. Actually it is so well written that I don't have to even edit it.
The reason why it works so well is because I am using ChatGPT which - as generally we all know - is a responsible AI.
I understand that LinkedIn needs to make money and in order to do that it has to bring more and more people to its platform. You also want to turn these people into paying customers and minimize the churn. Now the question is - will you do it with quality of the content or with quantity?
Let me remind you of the Mission statement for LinkedIn. 'The mission of LinkedIn is simple: connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.' Is the definition of 'productive and successful' a gigantic amount of regurgitated, useless content or less, more thought-through original ideas? Which pattern will you make the recurrent one?