In recent contract negotiations with parent company Gannett, a local newsroom union is fighting over the extent to which generative AI will be used for news content generation.
As media organizations adopt more generative AI capabilities with the aim of improving the efficiency of content production and certain business functions like sales, unions see themselves on the frontlines of upholding journalistic integrity and retaining jobs threatened by the adoption of this new technology.
On April 24, union members of the the daily Democrat & Chronicle newspaper in Rochester, New York, noticed an unexpected change in a clause around the use of artificial intelligence in a contract draft sent by Gannett.
