Microsoft Tech Company has revealed its plan to replace contract journalist with robots. The staff with MSN website will be eased out immediately the company concludes plan to deploy an automated system in the selection of news stories.
Currently, the selection of pictures and headlines as well as news stories from news organisations is being done by journalists. Like others, the company pays news organisation to use their content on MSN to engage journalist to decide stories to display. However, soon artificial intelligence would perform all these taskings, the Seattle Times report.
The MSN revealed this was not compelled by the COVID-19 pandemic but a long-planned evaluation of its business. In its statement, the company said: “Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis.
This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, redeployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the current pandemic.” By the end of June, about 50 contract news producers would be eased out. Meanwhile, a full-time journalist would remain.
Twenty-seven of those losing their jobs are The Guardian reports that 27 of those affected are employed by UK’s PA Media. One of them was quoted saying: “I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs – now it’s taken mine”
