Journalists win a key battle over AI in the newsroom

Greetings machine breakers, and welcome to a special midweek omnibus edition of BLOOD IN THE MACHINE. Today, we have an encouraging story about journalists taking on their bosses’ overzealous use of AI in the newsroom, fresh word of artists preparing to fight for AI transparency—and their livelihoods—in the heart of Silicon Valley, and an interview with author, video games journalist, and Aftermath co-founder Nathan Grayson. We had a good chat about AI, labor, and covering the behemoth industry.

Here’s the obligatory but brief reminder that paying subscribers keep this thing going, as BITM is a one-human, 100% independent operation. I’m also running a 20% off discount this week, so now is a good time to subscribe to save a few bucks and support this work. Many thanks everyone, and onwards.

Earlier this year, I reported that journalists at Politico were formally pushing back after their bosses deployed two different AI products without warning or oversight. Management launched a feature atop the widely-visited Politico homepage that automatically published AI-generated headlines and snippets during the Democratic National Convention and the vice presidential debates in 2024, promptly making obvious errors each time.

Then, again without consulting the newsroom, Politico began offering AI-generated “reports” to premium subscribers that were full of mistakes, factual errors and misrepresentations of staffers’ work.

Unlike many newsrooms, however, Politico journalists had a clearcut legal mechanism for fighting back: A union contract that prohibits the undisclosed and unsupervised use of AI. Per the contract, Politico’s leadership is required to give the staff 60 days notice before deploying AI products, for one thing. For another, they’re supposed to ensure that AI products both adhere to all editorial guidelines that human journalists do and are subject to human oversight. After Politico refused to admit wrongdoing, its journalists’ union, the PEN Guild, filed an official grievance and took them to arbitration.

In a ruling handed down this week that the union is hailing as a “landmark,” it just won a major victory. The arbitrator ruled that Politico officially violated the collective bargaining agreement by failing to provide notice, human oversight, or an opportunity for the workers to bargain over the use of AI in the newsroom.

“If the goal is speed and the cost is accuracy and accountability,” the arbitrator wrote in his decision, “AI is the clear winner. If accuracy and accountability is the baseline, then AI, as used in these ...