Bryan Cantrill: LLM-generated LinkedIn posts kill authenticity
Original: Your intellectual fly is open (2025)
Why This Matters
As LLM adoption grows, the erosion of authentic professional communication is becoming a mainstream concern.
Oxide Computer CEO Bryan Cantrill warned in a November 2025 LinkedIn post that AI-generated content is visibly recognizable and undermines the author's credibility. He urged professionals to write in their own voice, while acknowledging LLMs remain useful for brainstorming, comprehension, and editing.
Bryan Cantrill, known for his work on DTrace and as co-founder of Oxide Computer, published a pointed commentary on November 11, 2025, originally as a LinkedIn post and later reposted to his blog. He argued that a growing number of LinkedIn users are relying on LLMs to generate their posts — a practice he says is immediately obvious to anyone with even minimal exposure to AI-generated text. Cantrill described telltale signs including excessive emoji use, single-sentence paragraphs, 'it's not just… but also' constructions, and overuse of em-dashes. He compared LinkedIn itself to Gerald Ford — unglamorous but functional — as other platforms have collapsed or become untrustworthy. His core concern is authenticity: when a post is clearly LLM-generated, readers lose confidence in whether the underlying ideas or experiences are genuine. 'Your intellectual fly is open: lots of people notice — but no one is pointing it out,' he wrote. Cantrill stated he stops reading such posts, and believes many others do too. He explicitly supports LLMs for brainstorming, comprehending dense text, and editing, but insists they are 'lousy writers' who cannot substitute for a person's individual voice.