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[Futurism] "Gizmodo and Kotaku Staff Furious After Owner Announces Move to AI Content"

Varteras

Member
Glorified sociopolitical bloggers with little truly meaningful to add to the industry are in danger of losing their jobs to an inherently impartial system made up of binary code. Let us all welcome our AI overlords.
 

Barakov

Gold Member


The trial will include "producing just a handful of stories for most of our sites that are basically built around lists and data," Brown wrote. "These features aren't replacing work currently being done by writers and editors, and we hope that over time if we get these forms of content right and produced at scale, AI will, via search and promotion, help us grow our audience."


Gizmodo and Kotaku staff, in particular, were outraged at the news.
"AI content will not replace my work — but it will devalue it, place undue burden on editors, destroy the credibility of my outlet, and further frustrate our audience," Gizmodo journalist Lin Codega tweeted in response to the news. "AI in any form, only undermines our mission, demoralizes our reporters, and degrades our audience's trust."
"Hey! This sucks!" tweeted Kotaku writer Zack Zwiezen. "Please retweet and yell at G/O Media about this! Thanks."
"God, this is gonna be such a fucking nightmare," wrote former Gizmodo staffer and internet sleuthing expert Ashley Feinberg.

Definitely rooting for the bots on this one.
maywa denki robot GIF
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I remember when kotaku was a weeb haven, with great content about games from japan.
yeah it used to be a valuable site many years ago. They had lots of cool articles about JRPGs + quirky niche Japanese games. Back in the good old days when gaming websites actually wrote about video games and didn’t awkwardly jam hot-button social/political/gender & sexuality shit into everything
 

Raonak

Banned
Most of these websites just write clickbait articles that feed on outrage. Because outrage is the most powerful form of engagement.

Either you're outraged at the subject, or outraged that the website would write such a thing. Either way. You're making them relevant.

Nothing of value is really lost. And infact, these writers should be using AI which can do a far better job of feeding their articles with content.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
If your business model is to shit out SEO content then the move to "AI" (neural networks are not AI but that's another discussion, I guess...) is 100% right. And let's face it, all of these gaming blogs don't do any journalistic work either. So nothing is really lost there.
It's pretty easy to understand for me.

If a company wants to replace workers with a robot, hey it goes to show you're not worth keeping around. Simple as that. Long run, it's going to be cheaper, 24/7 work and no computers have attitude bringing their personal problems to work or being jackasses in social media sabotaging the company airing out confidential corporate memos.

It's actually kind of embarrassing if you think of it that nuts and bolts or a PC program can replace a "thinking" human. Be better than a robot and you'll keep your job.

For all the naysayers out there, put it this way. I dont see jobbers like garbagemen ever losing their jobs unless the cities can figure out how to dump trash automatically with self driving trucks, self programmed robo-arms and even more automation to hand pick boxes and tossed out furniture at the curb. A garbageman has better job security. Crazy but true.
 
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El Muerto

Member
I can imagine the meetings. "Have the AI write another pointless article about Apple products for Gizmodo. Then have the AI write something about being gay for Pokemon characters for Kotaku."
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I can imagine the meetings. "Have the AI write another pointless article about Apple products for Gizmodo. Then have the AI write something about being gay for Pokemon characters for Kotaku."
Sounds like an extension of what goes on in the net right now. Paid shills writing junky articles. But this time, the AI does it for free.

I know a guy who ran websites back in the 2000s and paid university students $20 to write full page reviews for products they never saw or used. Ridiculous. But it worked and his site made money. He'd coast at home golfing and traveling the world hiking and golfing while logging in from his laptop.

Now, a good AI script can do that kind of shit for free. I dont know anything about AI except for what Ive seen, but the scripts can be pretty obvious it was ChatAI kind of text, but at some point it'll probably be better written where it sounds more natural. When that happens, a lot of writers will be out of a job.
 
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For all the naysayers out there, put it this way. I dont see jobbers like garbagemen ever losing their jobs unless the cities can figure out how to dump trash automatically with self driving trucks, self programmed robo-arms and even more automation to hand pick boxes and tossed out furniture at the curb.
That sort of stuff is all going to be real in the future. There is no human task that conceptually can’t be replaced by an AI of sufficient intelligence.
 

Fbh

Member
Journalists getting out-journaled by AI....

Joe Biden Lol GIF by Election 2020

That's the thing though. They aren't journalists.
There's no journalistic work involved, no deep investigation, interviews, etc.

95% of what sites like Kotaku do is regurgitate press releases or make articles out of some Reddit thread or tweet, with the occasional bland Outrage piece trying to find social injustice where there isn't any.

AI can easily replace that
 

Fools idol

Banned
The joke is on anyone that thinks that AI can't do their job as well as them already with the right prompts.

AI will displace and replace at least 50% of the worlds workforce in the next decade and we will have a global unrest the likes we've never seen before and it's a scary thought.

I suspect UBI will become an absolute must, as most businesses will collapse / are becoming redundant, if not already happening.

The pace of progression in AI should scare everyone.
 

ZehDon

Member
First comment on Reddit:

"These trials have already led to a flood of error-laden, plagiarized, and poorly written content due to badly implemented — and, some would argue, inherently unsuited AI models — that still have a strong tendency to make up facts."

The irony.
Wait, if this is true, how will we be able to tell if they're using AI articles then?
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
I absolutely hate Resetera for obvious reasons, but AI is absolute crap and disrespectful to us creatives and artists overall. AI should die. BUt it wont. Sadly.
Its a tool (a very potentially powerful one) that's still in its infancy, society will need to learn to use it properly and for what its good at and what its not.. You sound like silent film actors when the talkies came around "its the ruining the art, its crap, it needs to die".

Did you also take issue with the internet when it turned up and disrupted tons of everyday norms? Did the coming of digital creation tools like photoshop and illustrator make you scream out "they are crap and disrespectful to us REAL artist"? You don't want to be lumped in with those people, the type that can't ever change and see any new disruptive tool as something to be hated because you and the world don't yet know how to utilize it.
 
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MayauMiao

Member
No wonder Kotaku staff were furious.

Gamer distrust towards Kotaku, a popular gaming news and opinion website, can be attributed to several factors. It is important to note that this sentiment is not universal among all gamers, as opinions can vary. However, there are certain reasons that have contributed to the lack of trust in Kotaku within the gaming community.

**1. Ethical Concerns and Bias:**
One of the primary reasons for gamer distrust towards Kotaku is the perception of ethical concerns and bias in their reporting. Over the years, Kotaku has been involved in controversies related to conflicts of interest and questionable journalistic practices. These incidents have raised doubts about the integrity and objectivity of their reporting.

In 2007, Kotaku faced criticism when it was revealed that they had accepted gifts from game developers without disclosing them in their articles. This raised concerns about potential bias in their coverage. Additionally, there have been instances where Kotaku writers were found to have personal relationships with individuals or companies they were covering, leading to accusations of favoritism.

Furthermore, some gamers perceive a political bias in Kotaku's reporting. The website has been known to cover social and political issues within the gaming industry, often taking a particular stance that aligns with progressive ideologies. While it is not inherently wrong for a publication to express opinions, some gamers feel that this bias affects the objectivity of their reporting and leads to a lack of trust.

**2. Clickbait and Sensationalism:**
Another reason for gamer distrust towards Kotaku is the perception that they prioritize clickbait headlines and sensationalism over accurate reporting. Some gamers argue that Kotaku tends to focus on controversial or provocative topics in order to generate more clicks and engagement, rather than providing well-researched and informative content.

Critics claim that this approach can lead to misleading or exaggerated information being presented as facts, which can erode trust in the publication. Gamers who value reliable and unbiased reporting may view Kotaku's clickbait tendencies as a reason to be skeptical of the information they provide.

**3. Quality and Accuracy of Reporting:**
Gamer distrust towards Kotaku also stems from concerns about the quality and accuracy of their reporting. While Kotaku has published numerous well-researched and informative articles, there have been instances where they have made factual errors or failed to verify information before publishing.

Inaccurate reporting can lead to misinformation spreading within the gaming community, which can be frustrating for gamers who rely on accurate information to make informed decisions about games and gaming-related products. Such incidents can contribute to a lack of trust in Kotaku's ability to deliver reliable news and analysis.

It is important to note that while these reasons contribute to gamer distrust towards Kotaku, it does not mean that all content published by the website is untrustworthy or biased. There are still many gamers who find value in Kotaku's articles, opinion pieces, and features. However, the concerns mentioned above have led to a significant portion of the gaming community being skeptical of the website's credibility.
 

Saber

Gold Member
Thats one of few times I'm totally in favor of AI. Their very existence as journalists means nothing. They could go out of business anytime and wouldn't make a single difference to readers.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Over all if its journalism you want AI will eventually become stagnant as it will have no more “ talent “ to pull from. But in this cases it should be a big upgrade lol.

But seriously all this will do is make click bait worse as that’s the sole point to this sites. It’s going to push towards cyber punk in real life where everything is over sexual and make society dumber.
 
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the_master

Member
Everybody enjoying the devaluation of a couple sites, but this will affect all sites. It will devalue every article, forum posts and so on, as more content will be fake
 
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