Carole Cadwalladr
NEW: Will Google's AI hype man kill the BBC? I've written about Matt Brittin because the coverage of his time at Google is shockingly naive. The BBC's next DG is a corporate yes man at a rapacious AI monopoly that preys on journalism in order to destroy it. 1/ www.thenerve.news/p/matt-britt...

Will Google’s AI hype man kill...
Will Google’s AI hype man kill the BBC?

Matt Brittin spent two decades at Google, a tech company helping to destroy journalism. His appointment as leader of Britain’s biggest news organisation represents an existential threat, writes Carole Cadwalladr

The Nerve
Mar 25 at 5:08pmWeb
Show threadCarole Cadwalladr1d ago
Out of a shortlist of 5, 4 were women with decades of experience of public service broadcasting. And one man with none at all: Matt Brittin. But that maybe the least of his problems... 2/
Show threadCarole Cadwalladr1d ago
The BBC's profile quotes sources "close" to Matt Brittin to deliver a fawning portrait of an "inspirational leader". Only he's never led anything. Brittin is a middle manager whose job was to stop Google being regulated and grow the business like late stage cancer. 3/
Show threadCarole Cadwalladr1d ago
Brittin is also a friend & ex-colleague of Anna Bateson, the Guardian's CEO, & last year, she effusively welcomed him onto the Guardian's board. It's the CV point that perhaps helped swing it with the BBC. But BBC journalists should pay attention to what happened next... 4/
Show threadCarole Cadwalladr1d ago
A month after Brittin joined, the Guardian announced a "strategic partnership" with OpenAI. Unlike, the NYT which chose to sue it for illegally scraping its site, the Guardian settled. It's refused to disclose a single detail about a deal that's cloaked in secrecy. 5/
Show threadCarole Cadwalladr1d ago
The Guardian's deal with OpenAI is a disaster for independent journalism. It's not a "partnership", it's a deliberate de-fanging of the press for corporate gain. And now Brittin is poised to do the same trick at the BBC dazzling the BBC board with his AI dog & pony show 6/
Show threadCarole Cadwalladr1d ago
And here's Brittin telling journalists to use AI or "risk missing out". The BBC board has made a terrible error. Like the UK press, it's trapped in a 90s bubble where Google's a whizzy start-up & tech will save us...the most dangerous myth of our time 7/
Show threadCarole Cadwalladr1d ago
The very best thing the executive leadership of *any* news can do is to listen to their journalists. The Guardian didn't which is why I'm writing this here. May the BBC have better luck🤞 To support our work, pls do sign up to @[email protected] for our (free) newsletter. 🙏 www.thenerve.news/membership

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