The question of technology and Artificial Intelligence taking over humans and replacing their jobs have been in the minds of many for years. Now, dozens of journalists are reportedly being forced to let go of their jobs at Microsoft News and MSN. Further, the organization is replacing the work done by these journalists by artificial intelligence. The layoffs are one of the early steps in the organization’s push to rely more on AI to pick content that will go up on its MSN website. This also holds true for the content in the Edge browser and the Microsoft News app.
As per a report by The Verge, Microsoft has said that the layoffs are not directly related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Many Media Houses and publications across the world have taken a direct hit due to the pandemic and have been forced to let go of its journalists and other staff members.
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“Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement. “This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, re-deployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the current pandemic,” added the employee.
Where are the Microsoft layoffs happening?
As per another report by Business Insider, Microsoft has let go of about 50 employees in the US. Another report by The Guardian shows that Microsoft also let go of about 27 journalists in the UK too. This brings the total number of affected people to over 75.
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Microsoft launched MSN in 1995, and it has since been showing news for 25 years now. The company then launched its Microsoft News app two years ago. It revealed during the launch that it had over 800 editors working from 50 locations across the world. In more recent months, the company has been using AI increasingly. It has used AI to scan for content and then filter it. The AI even suggested photographs to go with human editors to pair with their stories.