3 business reasons I am staying opted-in to LinkedIn's generative AI training

(and why doing the same might give you a marketing boost)

On October 5th, 2024, I got an email from LinkedIn, which directs to a page saying:

In cases where LinkedIn or its affiliates train or fine-tune generative AI models used to create content, including content that may be distributed or made available on LinkedIn’s platform, members can…control whether their data (such as profile data or content in posts) may be used to train or fine-tune such models.

This came after a fair amount of controversy whereby individual users noticed they had been silently opted-in to this training.

I wrote a separate article on transparency in AI training. And LinkedIn seems to have ignored my recommendations and flubbed the rollout here.

With that said, I think there are business reasons not to opt-out, namely to:

1. Increase your likelihood of being mentioned to your customers using LinkedIn generative AI tools

Anything you post on LinkedIn by definition you want to be public.

Why reduce your reach?

If you allow your content to be trained on, the more likely it is your (or your company's) name gets mentioned in response to a customer question.

2. Get broader distribution for your ideas

Even if you don’t get mentioned by name by a generative AI model, letting your content get trained on means the ideas are still incorporated into the model.

When I worked as a ghostwriter, one of the many benefits was the ability to spread my ideas to a larger audience.

Even if not under my name.

Generative AI trained on your content has the same impact.

And if you don’t have unique ideas you want to get broader distribution, why are you even posting?

3. Accept reality

LinkedIn isn’t offering additional compensation for opting-in to generative AI training.

But they were already profiting off your content without direct monetary compensation:

• Social media companies make revenue from ads

• Users who view ads come to see content, so

• You creating content makes LinkedIn money

• They already weren't paying you for it

Generative AI training on user content is just the next step in monetizing user-generated content.

And even if you took a hard-line approach of “no training on my (even public) content,” you would have to be consistent across every platform, e.g.:

• Web site (need to block all agents in robots.txt)

• Meta (can’t opt-out of training unless in EU)

• Your content shared by others (impossible)

Some caveats

• You may want to opt-out for personal privacy reasons.

• My take does not apply to confidential info.

• Protect it from unintended training.

Bottom line

Do whatever matches your risk appetite. But I’m staying opted in to LinkedIn's generative AI training.