The news: LinkedIn is taking steps to rein in AI-generated content, even as it expands its use of AI across the platform.

• LinkedIn is adding safeguards aimed at detecting AI-generated and automated comments and limiting their reach on the platform.
• New restrictions limit how widely suspected AI-generated content that “lacks any real unique perspective or substance” can spread.
• LinkedIn added filters that let users narrow results to posts from verified profiles only, aiming to reduce users’ exposure to AI bot profiles.

But despite these safeguards, LinkedIn is simultaneously leaning further into AI assistant tools, with automated features for job applications, profile building, candidate screening, and post creation.

Zooming out: Several social platforms are facing a similar challenge of trying to be AI-forward without alienating users.

• TikTok is expanding its AI tools for users and advertisers, including GMV Max Creative Hub and AI Alive for content creation, while also adding a feed-filtering option that lets users adjust how much AI-generated content they see.
• Meta continues to accelerate its AI-powered ad creation capabilities through tools like Advantage+ while imposing restrictions on AI for its younger audiences and labeling genAI ad images.
• Pinterest is expanding its AI capabilities through features like AI-generated collages, but is also giving users tools like a genAI content tuner that allows them to control how much AI content appears in their feeds.

Implications for marketers: The modern advertising industry all but demands that marketers use AI in some capacity as the industry shifts toward automation and efficiency. But consumer sentiment on AI content remains tepid: Consumers are much more likely to be concerned about AI than they are to be excited about the tool, per Quinnipiac University data. That helps explain why social platforms are increasingly giving users ways to limit AI-generated content in their feeds.

For marketers, the challenge is to use AI to improve speed and efficiency without producing the kind of generic, low-value content that users are increasingly trying to avoid.

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