Then-editor Connie Guglielmo later wrote that a plagiarism detection tool had been misused or failed and that the site was developing additional controls. A former employee asked for her byline to be removed from the site over concerns that AI was being used to update her stories in an attempt to attract more traffic from Google search results.
In response to the negative attention given to CNET’s AI project, Guglielmo published an article claiming that the outlet had tested an “in-house designed AI engine” and that “AI engines, like humans, make mistakes.” Nonetheless, she committed to making some changes to the site’s disclosure and citation policies and moving forward with her robot authorship experiment. In March, she left her role as editor-in-chief and now leads the outlet’s AI publishing strategy.
The revelations came during a job cuts campaign led by Red Ventures. After acquiring CNET in October 2020, the private equity-backed marketing company embarked on three rounds of layoffs between June 2021 and March of this year, the last of which reportedly reduced header by 10%.
“It really changed the direction of the site,” says David Lumb, a CNET reporter who covers mobile technology. He and his colleagues saw their award-winning publication known for its “no-nonsense” journalism pivot to prioritize monetization.
The Verge reported that Red Ventures had been pressuring staff to favorably review advertisers’ content and had begun devoting more resources to creating SEO bait, articles designed to rank highly in results Google search engine. Many of these stories included links to sign-ups for credit cards and loans, which earned lucrative commissions.
CNET’s new union says these changes, combined with layoffs and frozen promotions, have led to low morale and dozens of resignations. In late 2022, staff began organizing the union, which became even more urgent when workers learned about the use of AI-generated content.
In his article about the experiment, Guglielmo wrote that CNET asks humans to edit and fact-check stories created by the AI and claimed that the tool would give writers more time to report and test the products. But it could also be used to replace those editors with lower-paid staff who simply edit the drafts produced by the AI engine, says John Logan, director of labor studies at University of Texas State University. San Francisco. Unions may not be able to stop the encroachment of generative AI, but “it’s certainly the best chance the news media, Hollywood writers and other concerned people have.” “impose limits and maintain some control over the creative process,” he says.
