Microsoft News Shifts to an AI-driven System of Picking Stories - Cut Dozens of Editorial Workers
Microsoft News just cut dozens of editorial
workers as it shifts to an AI-driven system of picking stories
Lucia Moses May
29, 2020
- Microsoft News has
just shed dozens of contractors as it moves to an AI-driven system of
picking news and away from human editors for MSN.com, one of the world's
biggest news destinations.
- Earlier this year,
a reorganization put Microsoft News under Microsoft's Bing search engine,
which is algorithm-driven, insiders said.
- Insiders said the
most recent move is the latest attempt by Microsoft News to move away from
relying on human editors.
- Several
insiders expressed skepticism about the ability of an algorithm to do all
the subtle things that human editors do well, though.
Microsoft News has shed dozens of editorial
workers this week as it moves to an AI-driven system of picking news and away
from human editors for MSN.com, one of the world's biggest news destinations.
People close to the situation said the layoffs
impacted all its contractors in the US, numbering around 50, all of whom are
employed by staffing agencies Aquent and MAQ Consulting.
Calls and emails to those agencies seeking
comment weren't returned. A Microsoft spokesperson said: "Like all
companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. 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."
The sources said the recent move is the latest
in an ongoing shift by the tech giant to AI and away from human editors and
original content in its news properties.
Microsoft News dates back to 1995 and served to
promote Microsoft's internet service. It was part of a family of content and
service sites at Microsoft including Slate, Sidewalk.com, and Expedia.com. Over
the years, Microsoft has largely divested those sites and stopped producing
original content. Its news aggregator MSN.com remains a top news destination,
though. Comscore lists it as a top site in the US and Microsoft News claims to
reach close to half a billion people in 140 countries.
Microsoft is similar to other tech companies in
using algorithms to determine content selection. Others like YouTube and
Facebook have faced criticism for relying too heavily on algorithms to surface
content on their sites, though, resulting in fake and misleading news getting
through. Facebook has tried to fix its credibility over the years by
hiring human editors, but still relies mostly on algorithms in deciding
what news to promote. Tim Cook has made a point of the fact that Apple News has
a team of human editors running the news aggregation app, in contrast with
rival Facebook.
Microsoft has long talked about how, in a
selling point to publishing partners, it uses AI to help pick the vast amount
of news it has to sift through, but that it has humans to keep the site up to
date and apply editorial judgment when it comes to packaging big news stories.
In 2018, Darren Laybourn, who until earlier this year oversaw Microsoft
News, talked
about how the company leaned on 800 people around the world for that
purpose.
Microsoft News draws photos, videos, and
articles from more than 1,000 publishing partners including USA Today, The New
York Times, and Fox News. Business Insider also is a partner. Laybourn said at
the time that Microsoft paid $700 million to publishers for their content over
four years.
On its site, Microsoft News
says it uses AI to scans content, understand "dimensions like
freshness, category, topic type, opinion content and potential popularity and
then presents it for our editors. Our algorithms suggest appropriate photos to
pair with content to help bring stories to life. Editors then curate the top
stories throughout the day, across a variety of topics, so our readers get the
latest news from the best sources."
Over the years, driven by an engineering-heavy
culture, Microsoft has made efforts to rely more on AI and less on full-time
editors, people with direct knowledge said. Its contractors made around $35 to
$40 an hour, which some described as being decent, even if as contractors they
didn't feel strongly invested in the company.
Some questioned algorithms' ability to completely replace
human judgment
Some current and former employees, whose
identity is known to Business Insider but spoke on condition of anonymity to
avoid repercussions from Microsoft, saw a connection between the Microsoft News
shift to algorithms and Microsoft's search engine Bing, which is
algorithm-driven.
When Bing launched in 2009, the news team was
told to send Microsoft News traffic to Bing. Over the years, Microsoft brought
Microsoft News and Bing closer together. Earlier this year, a reorganization
put Microsoft News under the Bing umbrella, insiders said.
Some of these sources expressed skepticism
about the move to an algorithm-driven approach. Editors worked under the mantra
of "accuracy, speed, quality" and prided themselves on being able to
get breaking news up ahead of competitors like AOL.com and CNN by spotting
stories as they were starting to trend, and wondered if an algorithm could do
just as well.
They also expressed doubt that technology could
be trained to do the subtle things that human editors do well, like deciding
how to package related stories and keep out explicit crime stories that don't
fit the safe tone that the MSN.com home page was known for.
Sources acknowledged that most readers might
not notice any difference in an AI-driven news site. But they also worried the
changes would lead to a worse user experience and diminish the site's utility
to readers when the pandemic makes reliable news critical.
"It's a disservice," said one
ex-employee.
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