What happens if your LinkedIn post gets tagged as AI slop

If you’ve been on LinkedIn recently, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of posts look and sound like they’ve been written by AI, rather than real people. 

You’re not going crazy – data has found that around half of long-form posts on the platform are computer-generated, and LinkedIn has finally decided to do something about it.

LinkedIn’s “seems like AI slop” feature offers users a way to flag posts that seem completely AI-generated. The professional networking platform also quietly retired its generative AI post tool, replacing it with a simpler proofreading feature. 

As other content platforms like Substack crack down on the proliferation of AI content, LinkedIn’s recent changes will undoubtedly improve the user experience for users of the platform. However, it could also have ramifications for professionals who have been leaning heavily on AI to churn out content.

LinkedIn is waging a war against AI-slop

LinkedIn has an AI problem. Research from Pangram Labs has found that over 41% of long-form posts on the platform are machine-generated – nearly double the AI-content rate of other social media platforms. 

This is no coincidence: LinkedIn has spent the last three years encouraging users towards AI content generation. The platform rolled out content generation features as early as 2023, going further in 2024 with its “Enhance Your Post” tool, which used AI to generate a fully polished draft on the user’s behalf.  

Now, LinkedIn is making a sharp U-turn. The platform’s new “seems like AI slop” button lets users flag AI-generated-looking content from a three-dot menu. These reports feed directly into new classifiers LinkedIn is building to identify and reduce low-quality content. 

The platform is also ramping up its automation defences, blocking hundreds of thousands of automated comment attempts daily, and millions of other automation attempts in recent months, as it clamps down on its bot issue. 

In addition, LinkedIn has gone after the root of the AI problem – its “Enhance Your Post” feature has been retired, replaced by a proofreading tool that polishes writing without rewriting it wholesale.

For LinkedIn users, these changes will be a welcome shift. Scrolling through the platform’s feed should start to feel like engaging with real people again, rather than wading through endless bot content. However, the fix isn’t without its wrinkles.

The problems with LinkedIn’s new anti-AI feature

The biggest risk with crowdsourced flagging is its accuracy. AI deduction tools are far from foolproof, and with most users going off a simple “gut feeling” rather than any real evidence, flags are likely to misfire. 

Research has also shown that AI detection tools have a greater tendency to misclassify writing by non-native English speakers, with a Stanford Study finding that foreign language speakers face a false positive rate of 61% – far higher than the rate for English speakers. 

The other issue is the fallibility of human classification. While you may think you have a strong idea of what an AI LinkedIn post looks, sounds and “feels” like, someone else may have a very different take on the telltale signs. The possibility for content to be incorrectly flagged is vast. 

Others argue the bigger issue isn’t accuracy at all, but human nature. Since the button relies on people reporting what they don’t like, it could easily be used to silence posts someone simply doesn’t agree with. 

Waldemar Ingdahl, senior communications officer at the Institute for Futures Studies, raised this directly with LinkedIn’s Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan.

Speaking to Inc Magazine, he argued the real challenge lies in maintaining trust that these signals reflect content quality rather than popularity, disagreement, or coordinated reporting – calling it a governance problem as much as a technical one.

 What happens if your post gets reported as AI slop?

If your post is flagged by a user, it won’t disappear outright, but its reach may quietly shrink. 

According to a LinkedIn spokesperson, posts flagged through the new tool will experience reduced algorithmic reach, similar to what happens if someone responds “not interested” to a post. 

On top of that, the flag privately shows up on the poster’s own analytics dashboard to let them know others feel their content came across as overly AI-generated or inauthentic. 

While using AI won’t see you getting banned on LinkedIn, it’s still worth taking steps to ensure your LinkedIn posts sound as human as possible.

Avoiding the LinkedIn AI slop button: a checklist

• Write in your own voice first – don’t use an AI tool to generate content from start to finish; save it for editing and polishing instead.
  

• Avoid generic openers and closers like “in today’s fast-paced world”, or “let’s dive in”. These overused terms are AI hallmarks that readers instantly clock.

• Think carefully about formatting. A post full of neat bullet-pointed lists and em dashes will instantly read as AI. Keep your structure loose instead.
  

LinkedIn’s anti-AI tools are far from perfect. By taking steps to produce more human content and flagging other AI-generated posts you see, you can help nudge the platform back towards what it’s meant to be – a place for real people, not bots.