Microsoft to rely on AI to curate news stories after laying off several journalists

Microsoft is pushing towards relying more on AI after it has laid off several journalists and editorial workers at its Microsoft News and MSN organizations.

The company will now mainly be using artificial intelligence to pick and sort through news that is presented on its platforms.

“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,” Microsoft said in a statement to press.

Business Insider reported that as part of this move, 50 jobs in the U.S. have been impacted. Further, The Guardian reports that 27 jobs in the U.K. have been impacted after Microsoft decided that it now wants AI to curate articles on its homepages.

Microsoft has been present in the news industry for over 25 years, as it launched MSN in 1995. It then launched Microsoft News around two years ago, and employed more than 800 editors from around the world at the time.

The tech giant has recently been pushing for the use of AI for Microsoft News, and has even encouraged publishers and journalists to use it more often. For instance, it has been using AI to scan news content and then suggest photos to use with it.

Although the idea of using AI to curate news articles isn’t new, this may be the first major news organization to be impacted by the concept. However, as the news industry continues to take a hit amid the pandemic, we may see more jobs impacted in this way as organizations try to cut costs.

Source: The Verge

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