CNET, An Early Pioneer Of AI, Lays Off Longtime Workers

Are people’s concerns about artificial intelligence replacing the human workforce becoming a reality?

What Happened: Tech website CNET is reportedly laying off a significant number of employees after news surfaced that it uses AI to generate articles.

CNET is firing several employees, including longtime staffers. The layoffs began on Thursday morning and were announced via email, reported The Verge, citing multiple people with knowledge of the matter.

The development came just months after it was reported that CNET published dozens of articles since November using AI tools without formally informing the readers.

The email, sent to employees by Red Ventures — the private equity-backed marketing-turned-media company that bought CNET in 2020 — suggested that layoffs were made to refocus the site to areas that can bring traffic on Google Search.

“To prepare ourselves for a strong future, we will need to focus on how we simplify our operations and our tech stack, and also on how we invest our time and energy,” wrote Carlos Angrisano, president of financial services and the CNET Group at Red Ventures.

Connie Guglielmo, the site’s editor-in-chief, will also step down and take the responsibility as senior vice president of AI content strategy and editor-at-large.

Why It’s Important: CNET paused AI-generated stories in January. However, Red Ventures is gearing up to deploy the tool again, the report noted.

In January, OpenAI‘s chatGPT released a new tool following concerns regarding the impact of AI-powered chatbots. The idea behind this tool was to help people distinguish between human and AI-generated texts — but there were many limitations.

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CNET Jumped On AI Bandwagon Early On, Now It Has Laid Off Its Longtime Workers