LinkedIn's New War on AI Slop, and Disney Links Up with TikTok

0:01Welcome to Creator Upload, your Creator Economy podcast. I'm Lauren Schnipper. And I'm Joshua Cohen. Josh, I've been vindicated. I feel seen. I feel heard. LinkedIn is recently introducing an anti-AI slop button and will let users know when others think they're starting to sound like bots. I don't know what your feed looks like, Josh, but mine looks like an AI emoji dash regurgitated like nightmare. And it's made me like I used to love LinkedIn and it's made me not only like kind of hate it. It's like I dread going on it to see these long lengthy lengthy posts that are so clearly AI driven. And it's not to say, like, I've never written a post that has some AI influence, but I have not in, like, a year because I just think it's so gross.

0:50But as a result, I don't do as much as the people that are doing it with AI. And so some of the things that Wall Street Journal reported on this, an AI detection startup called Originality.ai examined 5 ,000 public LinkedIn posts in July for signs that they used AI more than a moderate amount. And it concluded that 81 % likely met the threshold. 81%. Damn. Like, that's honestly, like, less than I thought it would be, right? And they're saying, they went on in the Wall Street Journal to say, some telltale signs have grown all too familiar, even for the naked eye, says Dan Roth, who's LinkedIn's editor-in-chief and vice president of content.

1:26AI-infused posts often feature not only bland takeaways, but unusual formatting, recycling bin emojis paired with calls to repost or comment for more information, and the not-this-but-that speech pattern beloved by chatbots everywhere. in those long series of dramatic one-liners known as broetry genius. Broetry? In addition to adding the slop button, LinkedIn last month said it was phasing out an enhance your post feature that encouraged the use of AI tools for proofreading and rewriting. The move stemmed from low use and a desire to avoid contributing to the AI problem. This is like the best news I've heard all day.

2:01So when I'm going through my feed, LinkedIn will say, hey, this looks like AI slop. or when I'm writing this thing and I post it, my own stuff, it says, will look like AI slop. The button says that it will let users who encounter suspiciously generic content, aka AI content, flag the content as AI. And Lauren, LinkedIn also said that it's not going to delete the post. It's not going to notify the author directly or issue any kind of public penalty. It's doing this to train its algorithms to act as a digital signal to help LinkedIn refine its internal classifiers and content filters, which then presumably would have some effect on the algorithm, right?

2:36Yeah. And it's just interesting because it's like that kind of rings makes me is reminiscent in not a positive way. We're like, you know, probably 10 years ago at this point, you know, Facebook was like, we're going to prioritize, you know, content that has a lot of engagement. Well, what that meant was content where people were fighting with each other on the platform, which like led to this like now discourse that we have publicly. So like what are the and that was certainly not the intended, you know, you know, purpose of that sort of prioritization, reprioritization. So I wonder what this is going with the unintended consequences are of this.

3:08You know, I love like a platform change, bigger, small that could like lead to like massive upheaval, which I think that meta kind of change absolutely did. What they do do, although they're not going to take away those posts, it says LinkedIn says it does squash more than 200 ,000 AI generated spam comments every day. It also correctly detects an estimated 94 percent of generic or AI generated posts, which are refrains from distributing beyond the author's immediate network, according to a spokesperson from LinkedIn. I mean, I just think it's like it's just gotten it's gotten so it's just it's fascinating to me what what AI has done.

3:44There's, you know, it's just gotten so cringe when I go on LinkedIn now. I do not feel this way. Like it just I do feel that way, but I haven't noticed it as much because I just find myself naturally not going to LinkedIn as much. This is why in order to ingest all this information, you have to read through all of this kind of nonsense. Yes. And so it becomes less valuable over time, which is obviously why they're doing this. This is what I'm talking about. Yes. LinkedIn does also say we'll give creators a private notice in their analytics dashboard if they're writing consistently triggers inauthentic signals, allowing them to adjust before their reach shrinks.

4:20So this will have some effect on their reach and distribution if they keep getting flagged. I mean, there's people that I would say I am friends with in our industry that I have like muted because I cannot stand watching their AI slot posts like it is. And I think that partially, like perhaps I wouldn't notice it as much. I don't think that's true. I think I would. But like if it weren't like folks in my industry, you know what I mean? Like if it was somebody in like the automotive industry or something random and they were posting, I'd be like, this is genius. But I find that like people are getting leadership, thought leader kind of credit for posting a lot on LinkedIn in what is so clearly AI slop.

4:58Like it is just blatant. And it's like, do I have a chip on my shoulder about it? A hundred percent. Because I'm like, I've been blood sweating to like 99 % of my career has had zero AI in it. And you're coming out of here from nowhere and you're just going to AI slop your way through like 5 ,000 followers on LinkedIn. And now you think you're like a person? No, no, you're not a person. No. You are not a person. No, not a person. You are not a person. No. A person, a facade in front of an AI generated machine. Not interested. No. So I am, I'm honestly though, like all jokes aside, like I'm thrilled they're doing this because I, listen, I know I'm one data point.

5:31I get it. I get it. It's anecdotal. I understand. But I don't think I'm the only person that has found LinkedIn really cringe because of this. Yeah. What kind of bums me out is I do like the sentence structure. I play around with the sentence structure that LinkedIn tends to like in my own writings. And this is also available to be like when I use LinkedIn in the future and I do use AI Slop, it's totally my own sentence structure that I really like. It's not AI doing it. But I do like the beats it has, like long sentence, short, short, long sentence, short, short. There's kind of a rhythm to it that I do naturally employ and chats really like to employ the same type of structures.

6:10I mean, may this be your biggest problem. Also, like you take about five years to generate one LinkedIn post. And so I think just by the very nature of how long it takes you to do an original post, they'll be like, oh, this poor dude actually like did this himself. And like, yeah, my cadence, my cadence tells a different story. Like, OK, it's not AI. Again, another six months went by and he like finally did a post that was relevant three months ago. OK, cool, cool, cool. And they're obviously thinking about this, but obviously this could lead to some abuse. if there's some kind of like mass AI tagging, similar to how YouTube would have these mass dislike mobs where they would organize around creators they didn't like, whether because of who they were or what they were talking about, and just massively dislike their videos, which led to YouTube getting rid of the dislike button.

7:02And this could have the same effect. It's not going to be public, so I think they're shielded from that in a little bit, But I bet we'll hear about some like mass AI tagging stories on LinkedIn. But here's the other thing, maybe. But I also think that the people that are because it's mostly text based, the people that are doing the big AI posts, they're not they're not being public about it. And so it's like I feel like there's a shame to it. You know, it's different than an AI video that you're maybe like proud of. Like I think people so I think that like if you are tagged as like you're immediately going to do everything you can to make your post like seem not like AI.

7:41And I don't know. Yeah, that's true. So it's a little bit. I think it's a little different. But yeah, again, unintended consequences. I don't know what's going to happen. I think that some people that you and I both know are going to be posting a lot less soon. And I guess if LinkedIn gets those flags that they think this kind of content is AI and they go look at the content and it's obviously not AI or doesn't have some of the AI tropes. They're going to kind of disregard those flags. How are they going to figure that out? You're right. AI. Who knows? Yeah, problem solved. It's hard. I like AI.

8:09I think there's a great use for it. Do I think that like my fourth grader needs to be like using Canva AI in school? I do not. In fact, I just a little bit of a humble brag over here. He started school and they had to do like an about me presentation and they were highly encouraged to do it on the computer. and guess whose kid was not doing it on the computer. And he did like a massive poster board, printed things out, did a whole thing. And he was like amazing. And like, it was great. And what an experience. And how long, it took him longer and he had to think about it. And he had to chase the pictures, whatever.

8:42So no AI there is all I'm saying. His diorama presentation is going to be banging. Do you want to know what's amazing? Do you want to know what picture he used of me? After I wasn't even going to be in it, but then I reminded him I had a picture of me and Jordan Matter. And so then I used the picture. There you go. Baller. You got some cred there. I was like, you're going to tell everybody about it. It's like, everybody's going to know mommy. Okay, Josh, next up. Disney is giving TikTok creators official access to Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar characters. Disney is introducing a fan-created TikTok content to its Disney Plus app in its latest attempt to break into short-form creator videos.

9:17So it's partnering with TikTok to bring an expansive collection of thoughtfully curated Disney-centric fan-created content. What do you think about this, Josh? So I think this is fascinating. One, Disney Plus launched their Vert platform earlier this year, where it's their take on vertical video with just Disney Plus IP. HBO launched theirs last week. Everybody's doing this now because this is what a lot of people are consuming on other platforms anyway. So why should they be consuming it on other platforms when it's their IP? They should consume it on their own platform, which is great. Disney, though, wants to do one better and basically crowdsource the generation of short form vertical video content that they can then potentially use on their Verts platform.

10:00At the same time, get a ton of marketing and distribution and love for all the Disney characters it has across TikTok's global audience. So this is from the press release. TikTok creators will get access to, quote, hundreds of films and series from Disney's vast library of enduring franchises and beloved IP. And this is from Disney chief marketing and brand officer, Asad Ayaz. The best storytellers are fans first. That has always been true at Disney. And today fans are celebrating our stories in entirely new ways. This collaboration creates a new bridge between the stories we tell and the creativity they inspire, giving creators a bigger stage to share what they've made and audiences more to discover on Disney plus every day.

10:40So it's marketing content creation. So are they making new content with the IP or they're just picking out? I don't really quite understand what they're actually doing. Do you? Lauren, here's how it works. A TikTok creator has to join the program, the Disney creator ambassador program. So they got to opt in. If they do opt in, they can pull from licensed clips, scenes, characters, imagery from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and FX titles. So it's not like you type a prompt and get an Iron Man. It's a sanctioned library of real footage and assets that they now can use legally. And they make videos on TikTok with it.

11:16and then Disney and TikTok jointly handpicked a subset that will then appear on Disney Plus. Okay, so there is a curation element to this. I was like, there's no way they're just gonna let them do whatever they want. Well, they can let them do whatever they want on TikTok and then they'll pick. Right, oh. It lives in the normal feed on TikTok, distributed by TikTok's algorithm just like any other post. And then there's gonna be a curated selection that move over to Disney Plus Vert's platform. Okay. Right, so they're like crowdsourcing this content creation and then just cherry picking the best out.

11:45But any Tiktoktor has access to this or a specific group of Tiktokers? There aren't any details yet on if there is a certain threshold that creators need to meet to be part of this program. But they do have to affirmatively join it. It's opt-in, it's not opt-out. And it's US piloted first. And it's tiered. So everyone who's in gets licensed asset access. But best-in-class creators, whatever those are, unlock extra rewards. So they can go to exclusive events. They have career development pathways. There's more visibility. Their stuff gets more reach and search. So there is seemingly some benefit to creating some cool Disney content here beyond what would just be great and perform well in your algorithm.

12:26Well, that makes sense, right? Like it's not going to just be like they're going to have some sort of element of curation and everything to this. I mean, Disney. I mean, it's really like, you know, it's worth noting something I've said before that like it's actually like bananas that this is being allowed. Like this kind of IP. It's bananas. It's crazy. It's crazy. Like this conversation, even two years ago, would have been like, there's no way. It was a huge deal when Disney made a deal with Fortnite and invested in Epic and allowed their characters to be in Fortnite. Because that was the first time that Disney was letting someone outside of their control that wasn't like an officially licensed stationary or something.

13:02Be able to have some license to use their characters and give them to creators to use them in. To be clear, it's in the Fortnite game. So it's in a defined set of ways. But still, creators can control these characters. These characters are shooting other people at more. Disney walked with Epic and Fortnite so now they could run with TikTok. And it is just absolutely crazy. It's great. This is the most protected and the valuable IP in the world. And so, like, it has historically been completely gatekept. You know what I mean? There's been absolutely no access without complete and total control.

13:35And so this is a huge, huge thing. And Disney really needs to do this for two reasons. One, less and less consumption of kids programming is happening at like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. So when we were kids, you basically turn on Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers or something on the Disney Channel. And so you were exposed to those were not none of those were right. Exactly. You I'm saying. Oh, I thought you were saying those two. Got it. Yes. Yes. Those are like I was like Mr. Correct. We all know this. Yeah. PBS. I don't know if you did. I don't know. So you were exposed as a kid to tons of these Disney characters.

14:12I mean, my kids haven't even seen Aladdin or like The Little Mermaid, where that was inescapable. Well, that's just like your fault. When you were a child. But my kids have seen like all of it. It would be like 100 % of kids in elementary school would have seen those movies. And now it depends on parenting styles, what the parents are into and more. And so Disney really needs this to disseminate their IP to a broader audience. And so kids can interact with it and think it's cool and play around with it a little bit more. And then also Disney Plus has basically been stuck at 5 % of U.S. television watch time per Nielsen.

14:49Meanwhile, YouTube keeps increasing. They're close to 13 % now. They got to do something to get more people onto their platform to get some more watch time. I've been thinking about something a lot that Jim Otterbeck said when we were talking to him about OpenSauce the other day, which is that like even in the YouTube world, like, you know, 10, 15 years ago, you know, you would go to like all your friends that were watching YouTube were kind of all watching the same Shane Dawson, Phil DeFranco. Like it was everybody's kind of your friends. They all had the same kind of like fandom. And now it's so individualized.

15:21Like you might have like a elementary school class and everybody's watching their own. They're obsessed with their own individual things. Yeah. There's some things that cross over, like everybody will say this right now but you know what i mean but it's really i think there's something like amazing about that because there's so many different types of content um but there's something also like kind of sad about that because we're losing that collective experience totally collective fandom which was like you and i both know it was oh i probably mean more than you since i was a lady growing up in these times but like calling your friends during commercial breaks during at watching melrose place like this was a thing like literally when kimberly like took off the wig and revealed sort of like scarred head.

15:58Oh my God. Like I wanted to die. Insane. And like our kids will never really have that collective experience. There's not this kind of monoculture that's happening anymore. That's what makes these big monocultural experiences so much more valuable. Disney announced this week that it's sold out the Super Bowl for next year already. And that's because there's so few of those types of instances that exist anymore that unite everyone. It's like World Cup. Everybody was like so excited. I mean, we need these things, people. We do need these things. Okay, Josh, uploads, downloads. I'm going to start.

16:32So Hank Green, you know, I mean, I'm part of the Vlogbrother. He's been around forever. But he might need to pause his YouTube channel. Why? He's admitting to relying on AIs for research, which is an interesting reason to stop doing things because that's all anybody does. You need to explain this to me. But basically, he said on a Reddit post, he said, I need to come to terms with the fact that the level of dopamine I've been getting from interacting with LLMs with doing more and more and more and more is not healthy for me or good for the world. It's careless and has disconnected me from where people are in this.

17:04What do you think about this, Josh? I don't know if this is upload or download. Like, I feel like I like it because I feel like people need like we all are getting addicted to like AI. I do. I use it's been a lifesaver. I have a tarot. I'm really not good with like making decks in terms of making them pretty. And AI has changed. Sure, it's great. I think it's fantastic in lots of ways. It's amazing. It's a tool like any other tool. I think this is just interesting the amount of pushback Hank Green's got. And partly because that's his audience. He's developed this incredible career as being a thoughtful person who puts out very thought-provoking content online in a good way.

17:40And his audience has come to appreciate that. So when he, on a video, says things like, I appreciate the pushback, which then he got called out for sounding like it was AI generated. He then later said that part wasn't AI generated, but maybe like through osmosis of him reading a lot, he just incorporated that into his vocabulary. But he did say that he used ChatGPT for research on finding papers and compiling notes that he would then incorporate into his scripts. And so the result of that, him getting called out, him admitting to what he was doing, and then him coming to terms with that is he's going to take a break, not produce as much content.

18:17I think some of the responses to this have been interesting. It's like Hank Green doesn't need to make videos. He can if he wants to. He obviously enjoys it, but he doesn't need to be on any kind of deadline where if he has some kind of ideology that makes it so he doesn't want to use AI for these things, like, bro, take some time. Don't use AI for these things. If you want to use AI for some of these things and you feel like you want to be transparent with your audience about it, be transparent with your audience about it. Use AI for some of these things. There are lots of reporters, journalists, creators in the world at very big institutions that use AI for a bunch of material.

18:51They don't use it to write their stories. But Casey Newton from the Hard Four podcast and Platformer, he talks very publicly about how he uses AI to compile notes before he goes into interviews and to help him track like the entire history of his interview subject. He doesn't wholly rely on that, but it's definitely a tool that he uses in his repertoire to make himself a better journalist. So I think Hank Green can totally use that here, too. Maybe the future looks like just being more upfront with your audience about it and having some disclosures about what you're going to use AI for and what you're not going to use AI for.

19:24And I also think that like what he's sort of saying about the whole the dopamine hit and this and that. Like, I also think there's like people like, I don't know, I don't want to call him like schmoshmo and who use like AI as like a doctor. Right. Like, you know what I mean? like um like every time did you go into quad and like figure out like what they said about like you know x y and z we could have we could talk for hours about the state of the medical industry in this country and talk about why you need an ai assistant with that but that's for a different like i think it's like but i just feel like you know i think i think if there's a theme of this episode if nothing else it's that like everybody just needs to calm down but i'll calm down i'm not saying don't use it, use it smartly, use it wisely and don't let it like replace your brain.

20:05Like it's I have been there where I've been like, can I just write this text? You know what I mean? Like I've been there and like, no, I need to write it myself. My brain is needs to work. It like it happens quite quickly when you're just like, can you just do this? And then you also have to be careful, like in terms of fact checking, because it is often wrong or like just a slightly off in a way that feels weird. I think maybe you're just using the wrong prompts. In any case. I get so annoyed because I get used to one thing and then my husband will be like, have you tried? And I'm like, can you stop?

20:35Like you introduced me to a new thing. I get into it and they're like, yeah, I'm going to use. And I'm just like, I know you're trying to be helpful, but this is making me crazy. So Lauren, speaking of people who need to calm down, there is this tiny antique shop on Nantucket that's been open since 1948. It's called Four Winds Crafts Guild and it recently put up a no influencer sign in the window. It went viral instantly and the Internet basically lost it. owner john sylvia said to the cut earlier this week it was kind of tongue-in-cheek it can be annoying but i mean i'm not anti-influencers his real gripe was people treating his antique shop just like a backdrop for their videos i mean i think that that would mean that he's like anti - influencer which like more power to you dude that's really annoying it's like come in and buy something dude like i mean meanwhile the backlash for this has seemed to be extreme and hyperbolic So Paige Paul, who's 28 and a creator turned entrepreneur with over 1 million followers on Instagram and 840 ,000 on TikTok, said, quote, if you call yourself a feminist but proudly put up a no influencer sign, it's worth asking who you are attempting to delegitimize and why.

21:39Mocking women when they become powerful and a new industry isn't new. What's that to do with why are they saying mocking women? Because all women are influencers? I find that sexist. Is that what they're saying? Who knows what Paige is saying? that's a that's a ridiculous that's ridiculous that's ridiculous first of all everybody you reserve the right to review service to anybody i think if people are traipsing through your store not buying something and using it effectively like and by the way or it'd be like great i charged i'm gonna charge you to like use my store as a backdrop i think this is so everyone you've been to nantucket like this is like the least this is like the least harsh they are everyone From Paige Paul to Barstool founder Dave Portnoy weighed in on this.

22:23He's been a long-term resident in Nantucket. And he said, quote, if Four Winds considers me an influencer, then I'm just going to flip-flop to the other side. I don't think of an influencer. I've been on this island for more than a decade. It's not about me. He also said, I am against influencers coming to Nantucket. Let me say that. So I'm on board with the no influencer sign. But that's not discriminating at all. I have to agree here. I also think, hey, if you're an influencer in the lifestyle space, maybe you're in Nantucket or around that area or just anywhere. If you came out with some no influencers merch right now, it would crush.

22:55Crush. Crush. The no influencers influencers club. Honestly, are there not? Like, I feel like, I mean, should we just. We should just do it. Yeah, we should just do it. We should do this. Should we just do this? Yeah, we should do it. This is genius. Yes. Thank you. It's genius, actually. This is kind of genius. This is like actually one of your best. I'm going to go to AI right now and make a logo. This is not an influencer. Yeah, please. This is genius. All right, Josh, I think we did it. Lauren, I think that's it. I'll see you crowdsourcing some ideas for our new merch line using AI on LinkedIn.

23:24I don't even think I need to. I think we'll figure it out. Got it. I'm like, I don't even need. Look at that. Look at that, Josh. We didn't even need AI for that. We didn't even need it. It's not there next week on Creator Upload. Today's show was produced by Lauren Schnipper, Joshua Cohen. That's me and Adam Conner. It's edited by Adam Conner 2. Original music is by London Bridge. You can check them out on Instagram at London Bridge Music. Make sure you subscribe to Creator Upload right here on YouTube, on Apple Podcasts, as well as Spotify or wherever you're listening. While you're there, give us a rating and leave us a comment.

23:52If you want to talk, hit us up at info at creatorupload.com. If you like our show, recommend it to a friend. If you love it, just tell everyone. Thanks for listening to Creator Upload, and we will be back next week.