Politico’s Newsroom Initiates High-Tech Tussle with Management over AI – Let the Bot Battle Begin!
“Politico’s Newsroom Is Starting a Legal Battle With Management Over AI”
“In October, Politico’s employees learned that their publication was being sold to a German entity called Axel Springer. In town hall meetings, the questions went beyond what the new owner may change about their workday. Many were about the technological bent of the buyer.”
The charming folks at Politico have recently seen their beloved news entity being generously gifted to our German comrades over at Axel Springer. Amidst the flurry of ‘will they, won’t they’ office discussions, it seemed that the curious minds at Politico had more pressing concerns. Unlike their daily lunch rituals or the fate of their annual company trips, their worrying thoughts were pivoted around Axel Springer’s, let’s just call it, ‘passionate’ fascination with tech.
Quaking at the prospect of artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world is so last century. The pressing concern for Politico’s dashing team of wordsmiths and gossip mongers is, ostensibly, not having to deal with their very own Terminator scenarios. Instead, it’s how Axel Springer desires to change their conventional ways of doing things with a little bit of AI flavor.
Let’s focus on our ‘tech-devoted’ Axel Springer for a second. We need to applaud them for their enthusiasm in wanting to marry AI and journalism. Honestly, it’s the equivalent of shoving a kettle into a microwave and expecting tea. But hey, who are we to rain on their artificial parade?
It’s easy to understand the pseudo-existential crisis Politico is going through. After all, in this brave new world where algorithms are the new editors, is there still room for that human touch in journalism? Do we really want a robot deciding what news should top our reading list for the day?
Regardless of where one stands on the Axel Springer’s tech bandwagon, one thing is abundantly clear — the future of journalism is likely to be a high-stakes tug of war, and we are all anxious spectators.