Center for Investigative Reporting Union

Our editor-in-chief has written about how AI "enshitification" and "AI slop" has "ruined" search engines.

We're asking management to work with us to ensure AI enshitification never ruins @motherjones.com and @revealnews.org

Screenshot of an inaccurate news summary, which made a false claim about Luigi Mangione

In January, Apple was forced to suspend its AI news summary notification feature, which had concocted false stories and wrongly attributed them to real news outlets www.bbc.com/news/article...

Screenshotted excerpt from BBC AI study, which reads: "The answers produced by the AI assistants contained significant inaccuracies and distorted content from the BBC. In particular: • 51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form. • 19% of AI answers which cited BBC content introduced factual errors – incorrect factual statements, numbers and dates. • 13% of the quotes sourced from BBC articles were either altered from the original source or not present in the article cited."

A BBC study of AI tools found that "51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form" and "13% of the quotes sourced from BBC articles were either altered or didn’t actually exist in that article" www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...

Why do workers need a seat at the AI table?

The threat to our livelihoods and working conditions is obvious. It's clear that reckless use of AI could have catastrophic consequences for the reputations of our publications and the journalists who work here.

YouTube video by English Speeches ENGLISH SPEECH | JD VANCE: The Future of AI (English Subtitles)

VP Vance agrees: "For all major AI policy decisions coming from the federal government, the Trump Administration will guarantee American workers a seat at the table."

CIR's policies should be at least as democratic and worker-friendly as the Trump administration's. youtu.be/ocfcVuuuMpQ?...

Remarks by President Biden on His Investing in America Agenda | Racine, WI | The White House Gateway Technical CollegeRacine, Wisconsin 11:57 A.M. CDTTHE PRESIDENT:  Hello, hello, hello.  (Applause.) AUDIENCE:  Four more

Last year, President Biden declared that workers should "have a seat at the table in determining how these technologies are developed and used" bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-roo...

🔹Demand 2: CIR must work with, and get consent from, the Union before implementing AI tools.

AI-generated articles are permeating major news publications NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Maggie Harrison Dupre, staff writer at Futurism, about her reporting into AI-generated articles appearing on major news publications.

As our CEO has written (disapprovingly), "The big money loves the idea that artificial intelligence will replace journalists." This practice is increasingly widespread, and we don't want it to happen here. We doubt our readers or donors do, either. www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1...

"'Mother' Jones and her army of striking textile workers." Peirce & Jones, photographers/Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Mother%22_Jones_and_her_army_of_striking_textile_workers_starting_out_for_their_descent_on_New_York_The_textile_workers_of_Philadelphia_say_they_intend_to_show_the_people_of_the_country_their_LCCN2015649893.jpg

In short, don't replace us with bots. The leadership of a magazine named for a legendary labor leader should be happy to make that commitment. And it needs to be universal—covering print and radio; art, production and sound; business ops; and everything else.

Obviously, we aren't saying AI should never be used at all. But we are asking for two reasonable protections.

🔹Demand 1: Union work—and Union workers—must not be displaced by AI.

screenshot of an email subject-line reading, "This could kill journalism"

Last year, our CEO warned readers that AI poses an "existential threat" to independent news. "This could kill journalism," she wrote.

We agree.

We'll soon be sitting down with @motherjones.com & @revealnews.org management to discuss the CIR Union's demands for ethical, labor, and editorial safeguards around AI. A strong agreement is vital to protect the rights of workers and the reputation of our news organization. Here’s why: 🧵👇

new: Business Insider's employee union calls today's layoffs a "brazen pivot away from journalism toward greed."

Best of all, these are Union jobs!

Our editor-in-chief has written about how AI "enshitification" and "AI slop" has "ruined" search engines.

We're asking management to work with us to ensure AI enshitification never ruins @motherjones.com and @revealnews.org

Screenshot of an inaccurate news summary, which made a false claim about Luigi Mangione

In January, Apple was forced to suspend its AI news summary notification feature, which had concocted false stories and wrongly attributed them to real news outlets www.bbc.com/news/article...

Screenshotted excerpt from BBC AI study, which reads: "The answers produced by the AI assistants contained significant inaccuracies and distorted content from the BBC. In particular: • 51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form. • 19% of AI answers which cited BBC content introduced factual errors – incorrect factual statements, numbers and dates. • 13% of the quotes sourced from BBC articles were either altered from the original source or not present in the article cited."

A BBC study of AI tools found that "51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form" and "13% of the quotes sourced from BBC articles were either altered or didn’t actually exist in that article" www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...

Why do workers need a seat at the AI table?

The threat to our livelihoods and working conditions is obvious. It's clear that reckless use of AI could have catastrophic consequences for the reputations of our publications and the journalists who work here.

YouTube video by English Speeches ENGLISH SPEECH | JD VANCE: The Future of AI (English Subtitles)

VP Vance agrees: "For all major AI policy decisions coming from the federal government, the Trump Administration will guarantee American workers a seat at the table."

CIR's policies should be at least as democratic and worker-friendly as the Trump administration's. youtu.be/ocfcVuuuMpQ?...

Remarks by President Biden on His Investing in America Agenda | Racine, WI | The White House Gateway Technical CollegeRacine, Wisconsin 11:57 A.M. CDTTHE PRESIDENT:  Hello, hello, hello.  (Applause.) AUDIENCE:  Four more

Last year, President Biden declared that workers should "have a seat at the table in determining how these technologies are developed and used" bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-roo...

🔹Demand 2: CIR must work with, and get consent from, the Union before implementing AI tools.

AI-generated articles are permeating major news publications NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Maggie Harrison Dupre, staff writer at Futurism, about her reporting into AI-generated articles appearing on major news publications.

As our CEO has written (disapprovingly), "The big money loves the idea that artificial intelligence will replace journalists." This practice is increasingly widespread, and we don't want it to happen here. We doubt our readers or donors do, either. www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1...

"'Mother' Jones and her army of striking textile workers." Peirce & Jones, photographers/Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Mother%22_Jones_and_her_army_of_striking_textile_workers_starting_out_for_their_descent_on_New_York_The_textile_workers_of_Philadelphia_say_they_intend_to_show_the_people_of_the_country_their_LCCN2015649893.jpg

In short, don't replace us with bots. The leadership of a magazine named for a legendary labor leader should be happy to make that commitment. And it needs to be universal—covering print and radio; art, production and sound; business ops; and everything else.

Obviously, we aren't saying AI should never be used at all. But we are asking for two reasonable protections.

🔹Demand 1: Union work—and Union workers—must not be displaced by AI.

screenshot of an email subject-line reading, "This could kill journalism"

Last year, our CEO warned readers that AI poses an "existential threat" to independent news. "This could kill journalism," she wrote.

We agree.

We'll soon be sitting down with @motherjones.com & @revealnews.org management to discuss the CIR Union's demands for ethical, labor, and editorial safeguards around AI. A strong agreement is vital to protect the rights of workers and the reputation of our news organization. Here’s why: 🧵👇

Congrats!

We’re deeply grateful for the support of the @uaw.org, our siblings in journalism and across organized labor, and—most of all—our colleagues who make @revealnews.org and @motherjones.com what they are.💪 #UnionStrong

🔹 Fair representation: We want to ensure that our bargaining unit expands to include all employees who should properly be members of the Union.

🔹A voice for workers: Union members deserve a formal role in the performance evaluations of their managers and senior executives.