Using artificial intelligence was always part of the plan for media giant Axel Springer. CEO Mathias Döpfner has been trying to transform the company, which owns German news publications Bild and Welt, plus U.S. News sites Politico and much of Insider, into a digital powerhouse.
Now, he is taking his ambition forward by ushering in a “digital-only” phase. Bild, which is among the most widely sold newspapers in Europe, plans to cut several hundred jobs and downsize its business—due, in part, to A.I.
In a Tuesday email, Axel Springer told staff that it would “unfortunately be parting ways with colleagues who have tasks that in the digital world are performed by A.I. And/or automated processes,” according to German newspaper rival Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ). The layoffs are part of $110 million in cost-cutting by the publishing behemoth, which also said in the memo that several roles like those of editors and proofreaders will “no longer exist as they do today.”
The culling will impact around 200 of the total 1,000 employees at Bild, according to CNN.
Axel Springer and Bild did not immediately return Coins2Day’s request for comment.
These moves come just months after Döpfner told employees that “significant” job cuts were coming across the newsroom, warning journalists that their jobs may be at risk. He told staff in the memo that its “digital-only” approach would mean an aggressive A.I. Strategy, CNN reported, that could uproot print media.
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to make independent journalism better than it ever was—or simply replace it,” Döpfner wrote, The Guardian reported in February. He added that the tech had the potential to do tasks like compiling breaking news stories more quickly.
The music journalist turned CEO did say that he didn’t expect the entire journalism world to be replaced, because creating quality content will still be important for publishers. Döpfner also indicated at the time that editorial staff wouldn’t be impacted by his mission to revamp the company for the digital era.
“Understanding this change is essential to a publishing house’s future viability,” Döpfner wrote. “Only those who create the best original content will survive.”
A Bild spokesperson told CNN that the job cuts weren’t related to A.I., but added that A.I. Would be a time-saving and useful tool for editors and reporters.
Döpfner’s digital ambitions in recent times have even extended to social media platforms, when he offered to help Elon Musk with running Twitter before Musk bought the social media service.
“We [can] run it for you. And establish a true platform of free speech. Would be a real contribution to democracy,” he told Musk via text. Musk didn’t accept Döpfner’s offer.
Dear newsrooms, meet A.I.
Döpfner has embraced A.I. At a time when newsrooms worldwide are grappling with how to use the tech in day-to-day operations. BuzzFeed is now using it to customize quizzes and personalize some of its content. And Insider, which is owned by Axel Springer, also said in April that it will start experimenting with A.I.
But not everyone is as bullish about the use of A.I. In news media. For instance, Barry Diller, the media billionaire who cofounded Fox TV Networks and currently holds an executive role at media holding company IAC, warned last month that the use of the tech could be “destructive” to journalism unless publishers can figure out how to make sure copyright laws apply to A.I. He echoed those sentiments in April at the Semafor Media Summit.
“What you have to do is get the [media] industry to say, you cannot scrape our content until you work out systems where the publisher gets some avenue towards payment,” Diller said. “If you take those systems and you do not connect them to a process where you cannot do this until—the path toward some way of getting compensated for it, all will be lost.”
Diller’s fear isn’t unfounded. A.I. Has earned a notorious reputation in newsrooms after tech news site CNET used A.I. To write articles—some of which were riddled with errors. In April, German tabloid Die Aktuelle published an A.I.-generated interview that was “deceptively real” with former Formula 1 car driver Michael Schumacher, who hasn’t made a public appearance in a decade since a major skiing accident.
