CNET is laying off 10% of its staff, weeks after reports of it using AI to write articles — but it says the 2 things aren't linked
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- CNET is laying off roughly 10% of staff including several long-time employees, The Verge reported.
- The news come just weeks after the company was found to be using AI to generate articles.
- CNET told Insider that layoffs are unrelated to its use of AI to create content.
Tech news site CNET is laying off around 10% of employees, just weeks after it was revealed that the company used artificial intelligence to generate articles, The Verge reported on Thursday.
Citing an unnamed CNET employee, the Verge said that layoffs would affect its editorial team. While the company confirmed layoffs to Insider, it did not clarify which roles would be impacted.
The job cuts were reportedly announced in an internal email from CNET's owner Red Ventures, which acquired the publication from ViacomCBS in a $500 million deal in 2020.
The email, viewed by The Verge, reportedly implied that cuts were made so it can refocus the website on areas that bring in the most traffic from Google Search, like consumer technology and personal finance.
In January, it was revealed that the company quietly deployed "automation technology" to produce articles, Futurism reported. CNET revealed it had published 77 articles since November using an "internally designed AI engine."
A spokesperson told Insider that the layoffs are unrelated to its use of "emerging technology."
After Futurism found that one of CNET's AI-written articles was riddled with basic math errors, the publication had to issue significant corrections. CNET then found more errors and had to correct over half of its AI-written stories, per The Verge.
"We identified additional stories that required correction, with a small number requiring substantial correction and several stories with minor issues such as incomplete company names, transposed numbers or language that our senior editors viewed as vague," CNET's editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo said in a note on its website.
The company said it would stop using AI to generate articles in a staff call in January. But in February, Futurism reported that it was preparing to use the AI tool again.
According to a blog post that was viewed by The Verge and shared internally this week, Guglielmo will step down as editor-in-chief of CNET to become vice president of AI content strategy.
She will be working on machine-learning strategies across Red Ventures. Red Ventures also owns The Points Guy, Healthline, and Bankrate.