
Researchers from fields such as organisational psychology and labour history have been using LinkedIn as a data source to study careers and employment. A paper titled ‘Time travel on professional profiles’, led by Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom, reports that one in five US LinkedIn users went back to edit their past employment histories. The paper notes some edits reflect routine efforts to highlight skills that match changing job markets. It also finds a sharp difference in the pattern of retroactive edits after 2022, a period when users began using AI chatbots. The authors place this work in a growing strand of labour economics research that mines professional profiles and say the skills job seekers emphasise as automation advances deserve further attention.
The article uses a striking title and the phrase “time travel”, which is rhetorical and may overstate the novelty of editing online profiles. Readers should not assume the study proves that AI chatbots directly caused edits; the summary reports an association after 2022 but does not establish causation. The research concerns US LinkedIn users, so its findings may not generalise to other countries or platforms. Drawing attention to which skills job seekers promote as automation rises is reasonable, but caution is needed before concluding edits reflect deliberate misrepresentation or broad labour-market shifts without more evidence.
Original article: Quick Take | Using AI against AI (www.newindianexpress.com)
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