No more journalists? Microsoft replaces reporters with artificial intelligence

Many news agencies are taking artificial intelligence (AI) technology a step further by using it to virtually eliminate the need for human journalism.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

We may soon be entering an era where human reporters will become obsolete.

Last week, Microsoft Corp. announced it was laying off 50 of its independently contracted news editors.

“Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis,” a Microsoft spokesman said in a statement. “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.”

However, the real reason why the cuts were made is because all editorial duties will now be handled by Artificial Intelligence algorithms, reports The Seattle Times.

Even though Microsoft was already using AI to curate news content from its publishing partners, the company employed humans to rewrite headlines or add better accompanying photographs.

“It’s been semi-automated for a few months but now it’s full speed ahead,’’ one of the terminated editors said as quoted by the paper. “It’s demoralizing to think machines can replace us but there you go.’’

As of 2013, Microsoft began rolling back its original news content on its Microsoft Edge web home page and eventually completely replaced it with stories from top news agencies in exchange for a share in advertising revenue.

Many news agencies are taking AI technology a step further by using it to virtually eliminate the need for human journalism.

Known as “Robot Journalism,” these computer programs analyze vasts amounts of open-source data and automate “human-like” reports about health, crime, employment, and other subjects that can be customized to fit a certain voice, tone, or style.

However, robot journalists aren’t perfect either.

Last month, an LA Times computer-generated news program published a 6.8 magnitude alert for an earthquake in California.

Not only was the alert dated June 29, 2025, but in fact was referring to an earthquake that already took place 100 years earlier.

Disclaimer: We are all humans at World Israel News.