Renée DiResta and Josh Goldstein have uncovered more than 1,000 fake LinkedIn Profiles using faces created by artificial intelligence.
The fake LinkedIn profiles are used to increase sales for companies big and small. For those who fall for these images, they are connected later connected to a real person who tries to close the deal.
In the span of a few weeks, we found more than a thousand accounts that appear to be fake accounts with GAN-generated images, and when we searched for these personas on the internet, we didn’t find any evidence of them in other places, which is rare,” Goldstein explained.
One of the disadvantages of using a computer-generated LinkedIn profile is the fact that it helps spread misinformation and harassment in the corporate world.
The issue has been reported to LinkedIn and the company confirmed investigating and removing those that broke its policies.
“Our policies make it clear that every LinkedIn profile must represent a real person. We are constantly updating our technical defenses to better identify fake profiles and remove them from our community, as we have in this case,” LinkedIn spokesperson Leonna Spilman said in a statement.
For more information, read the original story in NPR.