Los Angeles Times owner says articles will use AI meter to show sources’ ‘bias’ | Los Angeles Times Gaylord Contreras | usagoldmines.com

Patrick Quickly-Shiong, the proprietor of the Los Angeles Times, has introduced plans to include an artificial intelligence-powered “bias meter” into the newspaper’s protection.

Quickly-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who purchased the Los Angeles Occasions in 2018, made the feedback on a podcast hosted by conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who is soon joining the LA Occasions editorial board.

The proposed transfer is the most recent controversy to rock the newspaper which has suffered a wave of resignations and layoffs beneath Quickly-Shiong’s possession. Most just lately, Quickly-Shiong blocked the paper from endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris in final month’s presidential election, sparking outrage from many employees.

The “bias meter”, Quickly-Shiong mentioned, can be built-in into articles in order that “any individual might perceive, as they learn it, that the supply of the article has some degree of bias”.

“And what we have to do just isn’t have what we name affirmation bias, after which that story robotically, the reader can press a button and get either side of that very same story based mostly on that story after which give feedback,” he added.

Quickly-Shiong informed Jennings that he had been “quietly constructing” the AI software “behind the scenes” and expressed his hope to launch it by this coming January.

His feedback rapidly elicited a response from the union representing most of the LA Occasions newsroom staffers.

“The newspaper’s proprietor has publicly recommended his employees harbors bias, with out providing proof or examples,” the assertion reads.

It provides: “Our members – and all Occasions staffers – abide by a strict set of ethics tips, which name for equity, precision, transparency, vigilance towards bias, and an earnest search to grasp all sides of a problem. These longstanding rules will proceed guiding our work.”

The current announcement of the “bias meter” comes as Quickly-Shiong has, in current weeks, expressed his need to incorporate more conservative voices to the paper’s opinion part.

“It’s clear we have to rebirth the group and permit dissenting views and ALL voices to be expressed … whether or not from the left, proper or middle,” he said in November. “This received’t be simple, however I’m dedicated to creating this occur and to assist heal our divided nation by a platform that permits civil discourse.”

Final week, he announced that Jennings could be becoming a member of the LA Occasions editorial board.

In an announcement, Jennings said that he deliberate to “symbolize these Individuals who imagine they’re typically ignored and even ridiculed in legacy media and applaud Dr Quickly-Shiong’s transfer to deliver steadiness to the editorial board”.

Quickly-Shiong has faced criticism in current months after he blocked the LA Occasions editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

This resolution triggered a wave of subscribers to cancel their subscriptions, employees anger and high-profile resignations on the publication, together with current Pulitzer prize winner Robert Greene and Harry Litman, a senior authorized affairs columnist for the Occasions’ opinion web page.

In an announcement on Thursday, Litman mentioned that his resignation was a “protest and visceral response towards the conduct of the paper’s proprietor, Dr Patrick Quickly-Shiong”.

“Quickly-Shiong has made a number of strikes to power the paper, over the forceful objections of his employees, right into a posture extra sympathetic to Donald Trump,” he mentioned. “Given the existential stakes for our democracy that I imagine Trump’s second time period poses, and the proof that Quickly-Shiong is currying favor with the president-elect, they’re repugnant and harmful.”