Microsoft replaces journalists with AI

In May 2020, Microsoft announced that it is laying off dozens of news journalists and editors and is to replace them with artificial intelligence (AI). 

According to Insider and The Guardian, around 50 people were let go in the US and 27 in the UK, most of whom had been curating articles on Microsoft News, MSN, and Microsoft's Edge internet browser. 

The Verge reports that Microsoft had increasingly been using AI to spot trending news stories, change headlines and suggest photos for human editors to pair it with.  

A UK employee told The Guardian 'I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs, and here I am – AI has taken my job.'