Dianne vs LinkedIn AI

11 July 2023

LinkedIn has started running Collaborative Articles that are nothing more than insipid AI-generated prose talking about completely uninteresting topics in software development. LinkedIn is thereby contributing to the flood of crappy AI articles on the Internet, diluting the usefulness of the Internet even more than it already is.

I was frequently invited to comment on these articles, or in English, invited to provide free labor to help LinkedIn train its AI. So I would frequently post comments such as the following:

As you see, the comment received 23 upvotes, which is far higher than any other comment on these articles that I have seen.

Because my comments were being consistently upvoted, I received the "Top Software Development Voice" badge on my account.

However, on 2023-07-11, the hammer dropped. LinkedIn sent me the email below and revoked the Top Software Development Badge.

My First Reply

Hi, Aura,

Thanks for your email.  I have two questions to which I would greatly
appreciate replies:

1) What policy, specifically, do you allege I have violated?  It
wasn't clear to me after reading the policies where the violation
supposedly happened.

2) Are you a human being or an AI chatbot?

Regards,

Dianne.

LinkedIn's Response

Hi Dianne,
 
Thank you for your response and I apologize for any confusion stemming
from my initial message to you. I can assure you that I and the rest
of our support specialists are real.

As a member of LinkedIn, you agree to abide by our User Agreement and
Professional Community Policies. As part of these policies, you agree
to refrain from spamming other members and the platform.

Your Community Top Voice badge has been removed due to violating this
agreement based on your engagement with collaborative articles. As a
correction to my initial notice, your ability to contribute will
remain in place and we encourage you to bring your own insightful and
helpful contributions that leverage your personal experiences and
examples.

Thank you for understanding,
Aura B
Executive Escalations Case Manager

My Second Reply

Hi, Aura,

> Thank you for your response and I apologize for any confusion
> stemming from my initial message to you. I can assure you that I and
> the rest of our support specialists are real.

OK, great.

> As a member of LinkedIn, you agree to abide by our User Agreement
> and Professional Community Policies. As part of these policies, you
> agree to refrain from spamming other members and the platform.

I see.

In my opinion, your low-quality AI-generated articles are themselves
spam.  My feed is spammed with them regularly and I cannot see a way
to stop seeing them.  If there is a way to stop seeing them, I'd
appreciate knowing how.

I believe that my commentary on the danger of AI articles was in fact
insightful and helpful, as evidenced by the large number of
"Insightful" votes my comments received (for example: this one
which received 24 "Insightful" votes.)

So I'd really appreciate if LinkedIn switched to not violating its own
Professional Community Policies and stop spamming its members with
AI-generated garbage.  Sorry for the harsh language, but "garbage" is
the most appropriate term.

Regards,

Dianne.

---

As a comedian, I think it's critical to speak truth to power and to call out things that I see as being a problem. I am sad, but not surprised, that LinkedIn has chosen to censor me in this way. The technology industry is full of free-expression advocates who change their tune very smartly when it's their pet technology that is criticized.