L4sBotArstechnica: “AI took my job, literally”—Gizmodo fires Spanish staff amid switch to AI translator
AutoTL;DRThis is the best summary I could come up with:
Former Gizmodo writer Matías S. Zavia publicly mentioned the layoffs, which took place via video call on August 29, in a social media post.
Earlier this summer, Gizmodo began publishing AI-generated articles in English without informing or involving its editorial staff.
The stories were found to contain multiple factual inaccuracies, leading the Gizmodo union to criticize the practice as unethical.
For Spanish-speaking audiences seeking news about science, technology, and Internet culture, the loss of original reporting from Gizmodo en Español is potentially a major blow.
Subtle errors, mistranslations, and lack of cultural knowledge can impair the quality of automatically translated content.
But with so many media companies chasing revenue through SEO manipulations and AI-written filler, it’s unlikely that we’ll see the end of this apparently cost-cutting AI trend soon.
The original article contains 523 words, the summary contains 129 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Is this irony? I’m never sure
KerfuffleMan, can’t even block the user without blocking all replies too.
Gizmodo is and has been the worst for a long time. In fact, that entire network of sites has been a rats nest of garbage for years. Unsurprising that they’d go this route.
What should Gizmodo do, keep paying people to jobs that have already been automated?
If the quality of what is output by automation is crap, then, yes. And in this case, the quality is crap. Ergo…
Have you tried using large language model translators? They work great, much better than old translation software. I’ve tried translating between two languages I know and it comes across very natural. Even human translators often make mistakes, so that alone isn’t a reason to switch back to manual translations.
Luddites also tried to say that new weaving machines produced inferior goods, and yet we know they luddites were wrong. Mass produced goods with textile machines is the only way clothing can be as affordable as it is.
It also sounds like the arguments against driverless cars, they make mistakes sometimes. Sure, but less often than their human competition.
I’m not talking about general LM and translation. I’m speaking specifically about the garbage Gizmodo is pumping out with AI generated articles lacking factual credibility and translation being of poor quality. It doesn’t mean I’m a Luddite. It means I’m criticizing Gizmodo using poor quality tools to replace human beings who were doing the job well.
I’ve no idea why this thread is so jumbled. Did comments get removed/moved?
I’ve dropped them from my newsfeed. If they’re just going to be writing AI summaries of what other sites have already published, and getting the facts wrong as a result, you’re literally better off reading nothing rather than read their articles, and trying to read them just encourages them because they’re still getting ad revenue.