Software Journalists at MSN

[lpetrich]

Dozens Of MSN Journalists To Be Replaced By Robots - not the self-contained, mechanical kind, but software running inside of MSN's servers.

In 2014, it stopped producing stories on its own and started entrusting a staff of editors with the task of selecting, adapting and highlighting stories produced by external media partners.

At the end of June, the Seattle Times reports, it will readjust again, laying off roughly 50 employees and replacing them with AI algorithms that will identify the best stories, rewrite the titles and find the best photos, effectively automating most of the tasks that had been so far performed by humans.

noting
Microsoft is cutting dozens of MSN news production workers and replacing them with artificial intelligence | The Seattle Times

Full-time news producers employed by Microsoft will be retained by the company; they perform functions similar to those being let go. But all contracted news producer jobs have been eliminated.

Some employees, speaking on condition of anonymity, said MSN will use AI to replace the production work they’d been doing. That work includes using algorithms to identify trending news stories from dozens of publishing partners and to help optimize the content by rewriting headlines or adding better accompanying photographs or slide shows.

“It’s been semi-automated for a few months but now it’s full speed ahead,’’ one of the terminated contractors said. “It’s demoralizing to think machines can replace us but there you go.’’

 

[steve_bank]

The next step is to replace on air people with animation and save the salaries.