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New AI features from LinkedIn will soon help job seekers find positions that best suit themwithout the need for exact keyword matches or specific job titles. LinkedIns new AI-powered job search interface allows users to express their goals in plain language, says Rohan Rajiv, LinkedIns head of career products. For example, users can type a phrase like business development or partnership roles in video games and still be matched with relevant positions in the gaming industry, even if job listings dont use those exact terms. Job seekers can also enter more abstract goals like using brand marketing skills to cure cancer to uncover marketing roles at pharmaceutical companies and oncology centers, Rajiv demonstrated in a session with Fast Company. Powered by large language model (LLM) AI, the new search tool interprets the intent behind job seeker queries and job descriptions, making it easier to match people with opportunities in a job market that often frustrates both applicants and employers. [Image: LinkedIn] LLMs are amazing at looking at a job description and extracting semantics out of them and nuance out of them, and inferring things from them, says Erran Berger, VP of engineering at LinkedIn. Recent survey data from LinkedIn shows that job seekers are applying to more positions than before, increasing the volume of applications that hiring teams must review. They say they are spending three to five hours a day sifting through applications, and less than half of these applications meet the required criteria, Rajiv notes. The enhanced AI search can also surface jobs and employers that applicants may not have previously considered. LinkedIn currently lists more than 15 million job postings. Another new feature, job match, helps users assess their fit for a role before applying. By analyzing both job descriptions and user profiles, the AI identifies how closely someone matches a job’s criteria and highlights areas where qualifications are strong or lackingsuch as experience with a particular technology. [Image: LinkedIn] Unlike traditional keyword searches, LLMs are less likely to overlook relevant experience. For example, the AI understands that a web developer likely knows HTML, even if its not explicitly listed. This insight allows users to refine their profiles with relevant skills or consider roles better aligned with their background, saving time for both candidates and recruiters. Another feature will provide context around whether a position is actively hiring, whether it’s being promoted on LinkedIn, and, when available, how long applicants typically wait to hear back. These AI innovations build on tools introduced last year to help recruiters identify strong matches and come roughly 20 years after LinkedIn first began helping users connect with job opportunities. At that time, the company recognized that its vast career and network data could help recruiters discover candidates not actively searching for roles, Berger explains. Twenty years ago, LinkedIn transformed the traditional job search by connecting recruiters with passive candidates, CEO Ryan Roslansky says in a statement to Fast Company. And today, with the launch of AI-powered job search, were not just introducing a new way to find a job, but an entirely new way to discover what’s possible. LinkedIn has steadily expanded its job-matching capabilities, introducing automated job recommendations around 2010 and consolidating job search tools into a dedicated tab on its main platform in 2016. These changes reflect how users often combine job searches with other research activities, such as exploring company profiles. Currently, more than 11,000 LinkedIn users apply for a job every minute. The company expects that its rich history of job and job seeker data will continue to enhance its AI matching tools. We’re really uniquely positioned to take this rich data that we haveand what’s possible with AI nowto build this feature in a way that few, if any, other companies can, Berger says.
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WeightWatchers said Tuesday it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to eliminate $1.15 billion in debt and focus on its transition into a telehealth services provider.Parent WW International Inc. said it has the support of nearly three-quarters of its debt holders. It expects to emerge from bankruptcy within 45 days, if not sooner.WeightWatchers, which was founded more than 60 years ago, has struggled recently. In 2023, the company moved into the prescription drug weight loss businessparticularly with the $106 million acquisition of Sequence, now WeightWatchers Clinic, a telehealth service that helps users get prescriptions for drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Trulicity.Its latest earnings report Tuesday showed that first-quarter revenue declined 10% while its loss on an adjusted basis totaled 47 cents per share. However, clinical subscription revenueor weight-loss medicationsjumped 57% year over year to $29.5 million.In September, WW International CEO Sima Sistani resigned, and the New York company named Tara Comonte, a WeightWatchers board member and former Shake Shack executive, interim chief executive.Comonte, now CEO, said in a statement Tuesday that, “As the conversation around weight shifts toward long-term health, our commitment to delivering the most trusted, science-backed, and holistic solutionsgrounded in community support and lasting resultshas never been stronger, or more important.”Shares of the company have traded at under $1 since early February. In after-hours trading, the stock plunged by half to 39 cents.The bankruptcy filing was made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Associated Press
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to enforce a ban on transgender people in the military, while legal challenges proceed.The court acted in the dispute over a policy that presumptively disqualifies transgender people from military service and could lead to the expulsion of experienced, decorated officers.The court’s three liberal justices said they would have kept the policy on hold. Neither the justices in the majority or dissent explained their votes, which is not uncommon in emergency appeals.Just after beginning his second term in January, Trump moved aggressively to roll back the rights of transgender people. Among the Republican president’s actions was an executive order that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy in February that gave the military services 30 days to figure out how they would seek out and identify transgender service members to remove them from the force. Those actions had been stalled by the lawsuits.“No More Trans @ DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X following Tuesday’s Supreme Court order. Earlier in the day, before the court acted, Hegseth said that his department is leaving wokeness and weakness behind. “No more pronouns,” he told a special operations forces conference in Tampa. “No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that s-.”The Defense Department said Tuesday that officials are currently determining the next steps, but officials were not aware of any actions being taken right away.Three federal judges had ruled against the ban.In the case the justices acted on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma, Washington, had ruled for seven long-serving transgender military members who say that the ban is insulting and discriminatory and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations. A prospective service member also sued.The individual service members who challenged the ban together have amassed more than 70 medals in 115 years of service, their lawyers wrote. The lead plaintiff is Emily Shilling, a Navy commander with nearly 20 years of service, including as a combat pilot who flew 60 missions in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.The Trump administration offered no explanation as to why transgender troops, who have been able to serve openly over the past four years with no evidence of problems, should suddenly be banned, Settle wrote. The judge is an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush and is a former captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps.Settle imposed a nationwide hold on the policy and a federal appeals court rejected the administration’s emergency plea. The Justice Department then turned to the Supreme Court.The policy also has been blocked by a federal judge in the nation’s capital, but that ruling has been temporarily halted by a federal appeals court, which heard arguments last month. The three-judge panel, which includes two judges appointed by Trump during his first term, appeared to be in favor of the administration’s position.In a more limited ruling, a judge in New Jersey also has barred the Air Force from removing two transgender men, saying they showed their separation would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations that no monetary settlement could repair.The LGBTQ rights groups Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation called the high court order a devastating blow to dedicated and highly qualified service members.“By allowing this discriminatory ban to take effect while our challenge continues, the court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice. Transgender individuals meet the same standards and demonstrate the same values as all who serve. We remain steadfast in our belief that this ban violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and will ultimately be struck down,” the groups said in a statement.The federal appeals court in San Francisco will hear the administration’s appeal in a process that will play out over several months at least. All the while, though, the transgender ban will remain in place under the Supreme Court order.In 2016, during Barack Obama’s presidency, a Defense Department policy permitted transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trump’s first term in the White House, the Republican issued a directive to ban transgender service members, with an exception for some of those who had already started transitioning under more lenient rules that were in effect during Obama’s Democratic administration.The Supreme Court allowed that ban to take effect. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, scrapped it when he took office.The rules the Defense Department wants to enforce contain no exceptions.The policy during Trump’s first term and the new one are “materially indistinguishable,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices, though lawyers for the service members who sued disagreed.Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the 2.1 million troops serving.A senior defense official said in February that they believe there are about 4,200 troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria currently serving in the active duty, National Guard and Reserves.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues, said that between 2015 and 2024, the total cost for psychotherapy, gender-affirming hormone therapy, gender-affirming surgery and other treatment for service members is about $52 million. Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report. Mark Sherman, Associated Press
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