G/O Media publishes AI-written stories riddled with errors despite employee protests about computer-generated garbage

Technician

From Allie Griffin

July 18, 2023 | 21:55

A media company that operates several sites including Jezebel, the Onion and Gizmodo is publishing error-ridden stories written by AI bots despite staff protests about what they slammed as computer-generated garbage.

The heads of G/O Media are doubling down on the eyebrow-raising practice and plan to publish more articles written by AI soon, according to an internal memo obtained by Vox.

Machine-generated stories first appeared on multiple G/O sites earlier this month with titles like Gizmodo Bot. One such story, a chronological list of Star Wars movies and shows posted on Gizmodo, contained more than a dozen errors, including some items that weren’t in the correct order.

Editors and reporters didn’t see the stories before they went live and were only told that the content would be published hours before they went live, the Washington Post reported.

G/O Medias managing director Merrill Brown told employees that AI content will not replace the work done by writers and editors and admitted there will be mistakes, according to the newspaper.

He also told staff that AI bots alone are (currently) not in fact reliable/consistent, in another company memo seen by Vox.

The union representing G/O employees quickly rejected the leadership’s decision.

The hard work of journalists cannot be replaced by unreliable AI programs known to create falsehoods and plagiarize the work of real writers, GMG Union wrote in a statement. Our newsrooms have spent decades building public trust by introducing computer-generated garbage that undermines our ability to do our jobs, erodes trust in us as journalists, damages our brands, and threatens our jobs.

Other news sites that have tried AI-written content, including CNET and Buzzfeed, quickly abandoned the experiment after stories were riddled with errors and inaccuracies.

But Brown told Vox on Tuesday that G/O Media has no plans to stop publishing stories written and produced by robots seemingly ignoring the complaints of its employees.

It’s definitely something we want to do more of, she said, adding that the best editors will review the content before publishing.

G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller took it a step further.

I think it would be irresponsible not to test [AI]Spanfeller told Vox.

The AG/O reporter told the outlet that stories written by bots are a disaster for employee morale.

Another staff writer said the company is just looking for another cost-cutting measure.

This is a not-so-veiled attempt to replace real journalism with machine-generated content, the employee told Vox.