From several sources, thousands of jobs have been replaced by artificial intelligence solutions. The most interesting part is that the job replacement doesn't affect one industry. The advent of AI has affected many sectors, from tech to news/journalistic sectors. This is the case of one of the most prominent German newspapers, accused of replacing some of its employees with AI.
However, the German Newspaper has reacted to the rumors, saying that they were only introducing AI in the company to support journalists and not replace them. AI replacing journalists isn't new, even in TV channels.
According to some reports from The Guardian and other media outlets on June 21st, Bild's parent publishing firm, Axel Springer SE, was planning to replace some of the writers and editors with some AI solutions. From reports coming from The Guardian, they cited an internal email circulating within Bild as evidence of these claims.
However, Bild has come out to defend its name, saying that the reports from several news outlets were false. Bild Group's director of communications, Christian Senft, spoke with the Cointelegraph, telling them to discard any news of using AI to replace their employees.
He said the "reports are false," and "with our current measures, we have no intention of replacing journalism with AI."
Bild's Real Intentions with AI
By now, you would be asking, what was Bild trying to do with AI in their internal memo?
Apparently, Bild Group's director of communications, Christian Senft, said their announcement was for their restructuring programs. The Newspaper's director of communications said they were trying to reduce the number of their regional editions.
They wanted to reduce their regional editions from 18 as the year started to about 12 at the end of the year. In addition, the news company also says they will be closing down more than 60% of their regional offices. They will reduce the number of their regional offices from 15 to 5 at the end of the year. They want to move many operations from different parts of the world to concentrate mainly in Berlin.
"Therefore, these tasks such as secretariats and photo production are no longer necessary in the regions," Senft said while discussing why there will be reductions in their employee count. He confirmed there will be job cuts, but it will have nothing to do with AI. Also, he mentioned that AI and journalism would be experimented with in their news firm. They would want to use AI as a tool and support their journalistic works.
"To this end, we are approaching the topic with an open mind and currently have many initiatives with which we are exploring areas of application for AI for our journalistic brands, both in the production processes of the editorial offices and about the reader experience," Senft said while speaking about the new situation.
The new venture by Bild isn't the only one being recorded in different sectors, as many other companies are planning to merge their activities with AI.