Aggregator

Prospect magazine, in a recent piece: "LinkedIn doesn't know me anymore," someone complained to me recently. "What do you mean?" I asked. She explained that the platform has replaced the old "recommended jobs" section, which used to show her quite useful job openings based on her previous searches and CV, with an AI search engine that asks you to describe your ideal job in freeform text. The results it brings up aren't nearly as relevant. This is just one of many ways in which the professionals' social media platform, which has embraced artificial intelligence with ferocious zeal, is being gradually "enshittified," to borrow tech writer Cory Doctorow's phrase. Each new embrace of AI tools promises to make hiring, job searching, networking and even posting a bit easier or more fruitful. Instead, AI seems to have made the user's experience more alienating, and to have helped foster a genre of LinkedIn-speak which bears all the hallmarks of the worst AI writing on the internet. Let's start with my opening example -- which, to be fair, is in beta testing mode and can be switched off. Instead of the AI assistant being like an intuitive digital servant, pulling up the best jobs based on your ruminations, users are confronted with a new and annoying task: crafting prompts for the AI. But the non-AI search bar worked perfectly well as it was. Then there is the AI writing assistant, which is available to users who pay for the platform's $40 per month premium service to help them craft their posts. LinkedIn's CEO Ryan Roslansky recently admitted that users aren't using the tool as much as he anticipated. It seems that sounding like a human being to your colleagues and clients is put at, well, a premium. And then there are the ways in which users are deploying outputs from external AI chatbots on the platform, something with which LinkedIn is struggling to cope. According to the New York Times, the number of job applications submitted via the platform increased by 45 per cent in the year to June, now clocking in at an average of 11,000 per minute.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

During his visit to Scotland last month, Donald Trump branded the London mayor a 'nasty person' who has 'done a terrible job' in his latest blast at the Labour politician.

Though a treat loved by most in the UK, few of its fans know the true origin behind the 99 Flake's moniker.

Could tinkering with a site’s code to hide ads count as infringement?

UPDATED  A recent ruling by the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has reopened the possibility that using ad blocking software could violate copyright law in Germany.…

Six in ten Brits (61 per cent) believe the correct modern etiquette is to call ahead of a dinner or lunch party - to notify the host you are taking weight loss drugs, according to a new study.

Cass, seven, the couple's youngest child, really got into the spirit of the show and wore a black Oasis T-shirt and bucket hat.

Princess Andre has revealed she is afraid of driving in the dark after being involved in a carjacking as a child.

The Chancellor is said to be considering further planning reforms that would make it harder for concerns about nature to stop development.

Meghan and Harry arrived in LA to begin an optimistic new chapter - and were welcomed with open arms. Five years on, an A-lister's Instagram post highlights just how much has changed...

Molly Mae Hague has shared her worries over how her two-year-old daughter Bambi has bitten two other children at nursery in a new YouTube video.

P2P power networks beat stingy feed-in tariffs for Aussie households, study finds

Boffins looking into the Australian solar energy ecosystem say that sharing really is caring – and potentially profitable when homes with solar panels can sell their excess energy to neighbors at a preferential rate.…

Normal People author, Sally Rooney, 34, said she would donate earnings from her work to support the group, which was recently proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.

The fire burnt down the building - but now new plans have been submitted

Parker is not holding back in her response to those who 'hate watch' And Just Like That ... - even after the season three finale was torched by critics.

Virtual agents to guide citizens through red tape – but not remove any of it

The UK government has leapt into the AI hype with a raft of "Exemplar" programs it claims will deliver billions in value – including a Clippy-style assistant to help citizens navigate complex forms and legal jargon, rather than simply making them clearer in the first place.…

Anglers out on a sport fishing trip pulled in the catch of a lifetime when they hooked a stunning orange colored shark with white eyes.

Tower Hamlets in east London previously prided itself on its displays of Palestine flags, but said any England banners attached to council property would be promptly removed.

Members from Kent Fire and Rescue Service left a heartbreaking tribute to the youngster who died after a car collided with 'multiple pedestrians' in Whitstable, Kent, on Saturday.

Visits to many adult sites halved within two weeks of the introduction of enhanced age verification rules under the Online Safety Act.

I've long believed that a good Full English is more than just a filling meal; to poke the yolk on a perfectly fried egg, to feel the winsome crunch of good toast and to smell the aroma of thick bacon.