Despite massive cock-ups like publishing fake news about Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher, the media conglomerate Alex Springer-Verlag, which publishes the largest German newspaper Bild, is to lay off about 200 journalists in order to cut costs. According to the company’s internal mailing list, instead of people, some news work tasks are planned to be delegated to artificial intelligence or automatic processes.

Bild, Europe’s best-selling newspaper, has announced a €100 million cost-cutting program that will lay off about 200 employees, writes The Guardian. The company warned that it expects further reductions in its editorial staff due to artificial intelligence capabilities.

Media concern Alex Springer-Verlag, said in an internal mailing list seen by rival publication Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) that it, unfortunately, will part ways with colleagues whose tasks in the digital world are performed by AI and/or automated processes. 

The German Union of Journalists (DJV) has criticized the media group’s plans and warned that staff cuts would destroy the company’s cash cow. The association emphasized that such a step is not only socially dangerous for employees but also extremely stupid economically. The publishing house would become a fully digital media company. He pointed out that AI tools like ChatGPT will replace human journalism.

The Guardian points out that Alex Springer-Verlag is not the first publisher to switch to using artificial intelligence. BuzzFeed said this year that it intends to use AI to improve» content and online tests. The UK’s The Daily Mirror and The Daily Express are also exploring the use of new technologies that can create highly complex texts based on simple user requests. 

At the same time, the answers of the program are not always accurate and sometimes even incorrect. So, in April, the publishers of the German weekly Die Aktuelle fired an editor and apologized to the family of Michael Schumacher after publishing an ‘interview’ with the seven-time Formula 1 champion, which turned out to be completely created by AI. Relatives of the race car driver, who, after a head injury in the French Alps, does not appear in public, have launched a lawsuit against the publishers.

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