Microsoft. (Photo: VDB Photos / Shutterstock)
01.06.2020, 10:28 p.m.
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Microsoft is said to have cut dozens of jobs for journalists at MSN to replace them with an AI. Now it has to be seen whether that is possible.
According to reports from several US media, Microsoft is said to have not renewed the contracts of dozens of journalists in order to continue their duties from an artificial intelligence to get done. In total, there are said to be around 50 employees who previously worked for external media companies, including Microsoft’s news service MSN. Your contracts will expire at the end of June, like Gizmodo writes.
Microsoft: AI to replace journalists
Microsoft had the Seattle Times say through a corporate spokesman that like all companies you regularly evaluate your business, which could also result in a downsizing. In any case, the job cuts have nothing to do with the corona pandemic. Microsoft said nothing about AI. Former employees, who wanted to remain anonymous, explained that their previous work at MSN will be done in the future using algorithms. Incidentally, permanent Microsoft employees in similar areas should not be reduced.
Microsoft is already using algorithms at MSN when it comes to finding the most powerful articles from new partners. So far, however, human journalists have been responsible for finding good headlines and matching photos. Microsoft employees were also available when curating planned content or maintaining editorial calendars on the partner news sites. In the future, these semi-automatically managed activities should run fully automatically.
Can an AI monitor content efficiently?
To what extent the AI will be involved in the content creation process at MSN in the future is not clear. Microsoft did not want to comment on Gizmodo for the time being. Former employees anticipate that there could be difficulties if the AI is to monitor the very strict content guidelines. Normally, this is to keep violent or inappropriate content off the website. Machines should not yet be able to filter out insulting content 100 percent. But the AI can now prove the opposite.
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