Business Insider union slams AI effort

The Business Insider union issued the following statement:

The Insider Union learned this week of a new, unexpected author page on our company’s website: “Business Insider AI.” The bio says AI will “draft news stories so we can bring readers more information, more quickly.” These stories will be edited by “human editors,” but it’s not clear if those editors will be unit members.

To be clear, these stories have not been published yet. But we’re staring down the possibility of AI-written articles on the site, in our core coverage areas, without our involvement — which fundamentally undermines the value of our unit members and the humanity that makes our journalism worth reading and watching.

It also flagrantly disregards our unit’s AI demands, which state “AI should never replace workers” and “AI should never write stories.”

Just a few months ago, we lost more than 20% of the newsroom to layoffs. In the email announcing the layoffs, Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng said “we are going all-in on AI — and we’re off to a strong start.” Since then, we’ve been warned of an “output crunch,” pressured to work faster, and watched freelancers and managers take over our former members’ work, all while management relentlessly pushes AI on all of us. This is not what a “strong start” looks like.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the company’s plans for “Business Insider AI.” We’ve requested more information from our newsroom leaders, who have yet to address our members about this development. We do know, though, that we’re ready to fight back. We’ve already fought for clearer newsroom AI policies and successfully pushed management to agree that full AI-generated content will always be disclosed to our audience. Meanwhile, our (human!) members continue to produce incredible journalism every day for our readers and viewers.

Please join us in sending a clear message to Business Insider management: No slop in our shop!