Ethan Mollick Questions the Purpose of Anonymous AI Slop Comments

What happened

I really don’t understand the point of the AI slop comments flooding my posts. At least on LinkedIn they are pushing fake expertise to make their posters look good (it doesn’t, but whatever). But what is gained by dozens of anonymous bots making similar replies to posts like this?

The story so far

Ethan Mollick criticized what he described as AI-generated comments flooding his X posts, questioning what dozens of anonymous bots gain by posting similar replies. He said reply bots increasingly ask interesting questions, making their comments feel like actual intellectual engagement—a shift he found more disheartening than replies that simply paraphrase a post and add “that’s the part people miss.” Mollick contrasted the anonymous replies on X with AI-generated comments on LinkedIn, where he said posters push fake expertise to make themselves look good. He questioned the purpose of the X replies while arguing that the LinkedIn tactic also fails to make its users look good.

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