'AI writing is now a problem everywhere on social media'

Study finds social media posts are increasingly AI-generated

LinkedIn particularly affected, with 40% of long-form posts written by AI

Substack and Twitter/X also badly hit

LinkedIn and other social media networks are rapidly being consumed by AI-written slop posts, new research has claimed.

A report from AI detection firm Pangram Labs found nearly half of all long posts (over 250 words) on LinkedIn were created entirely by AI, with the likes of Substack and X/Twitter also seeing a huge rise in such content.

"LinkedIn was the most AI-saturated platform, where more than 40% of longform posts flagged as fully AI-generated," the company's report said.

The study, which also examined Medium and Reddit alongside the other social networks for a data set of over a million posts, found one in four longform posts on social media flagged as fully AI-generated, with lengthier content much more likely to be created with AI than shortform.

Pangram found that LinkedIn was the most AI-saturated platform, where more than 40% of longform posts were flagged as being fully AI-generated, with Substack the least affected, with longer posts often far less likely to be AI-generated.

LinkedIn was also identified as having the highest AI share of any platform included in the report, as although its posts only made up a third of scanned items, it accounted for nearly two-thirds (62%) of all AI content flagged by the system.

However, when mixed AI and human content were included, X/Twitter was by the most swamped by AI, with the study finding almost half of articles on the site were either fully AI-generated (23.9%) or AI-assisted/mixed (22.9%), with only 53.2% of X articles flagging as fully human-authored.

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"Our data shows that AI-generated content is a problem across all platforms, and it is hitting longform content especially hard," Pangram said.

"Contrary to what one might expect, people are overwhelmingly willing to use AI to speak on their behalf in professional settings that are associated with their real identity, and less likely to use it on casual and anonymous platforms."

"AI writing is now a problem everywhere on social media," Pangram Labs CEO and co-founder Max Spero noted. "An internet that is completely flooded with undisclosed AI content is bleak, but we don't believe it's inevitable."

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Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for over a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal. When he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, he can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.