AI Hustle: News on Open AI, ChatGPT, Midjourney, NVIDIA, Anthropic, Open Source LLMs: Gizmodo Replaces Spanish Editorial Staff with AI – Game Changer!

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So the news story here really is that GeoMedia, which is a parent company of Gizmodo, has

made a major shift in its editorial strategy, right?

So we mentioned they're shutting down the whole language, the Spanish language section

of Gizmodo on Espanol, and they are laying off the entire editorial team.

So all of those editors are completely gone.

It's interesting because I feel like there's the writer's guild that is striking.

There's these big writer strikes saying, hey, we don't want AI to replace us, yada yada.

It's interesting because right now in an economy that is tightening, I really don't see that

strategy as being incredibly beneficial.

Resisting the AI is, I think, going to be essentially what is seen as being a modern

day ludite, especially for writers.

I know it's hard and they have their craft and they love what they do, but at the end

of the day, the economy is contracting.

It may be happening for a while based on what the Fed is planning on doing with rates, which

it looks like if they don't want to repeat what they did, what happened in the 70s, that

these rate hikes are going to stay a lot longer than we were planning.

Initially, I was fairly bullish on, I was like, oh man, these rates are going to start

turning around Q1 of 2024, but I'm not sure if you've looked at this.

This is actually, I think, relevant.

So bear with me on this economic concept because I think this is very relevant to what was

going to see mass layoffs from AI, but essentially, right now, we're following the exact pattern.

You can overlay a chart of our inflation spike that the United States, and I know a lot of

other countries around the world, has seen the Fed started raising rates.

We've seen the interest rates curbing and coming down.

A lot of people are excited and thinking, great, inflation is coming down, so we're

going to be able to start curbing interest rates soon.

This pattern is exactly what happened in the 70s in the United States.

Our pattern of the spike and our pattern of the curve is exactly the same, the way that

the Fed back then also raised interest rates to curb inflation.

Now, the only difference is that we saw about two quarters of it flatlining at the bottom,

and then in the 70s, they started loosening up the interest rates again, and all of a

sudden, the interest rates spiked twice as high as the previous bounce.

So pretty much the peak of our inflation that we saw a number of months ago, double that

is what they saw in the 70s, and it took a very long time.

It was very hard for them to fight it back down.

So all of this to say the Federal Reserve does not want to repeat what happened in

the 70s, if they start loosening up interest rates, you know, Q1 of 2024, I believe we're

going to see that runaway inflation again, and they know that, or at least historically

speaking, that's like our precedent to follow.

And so due to that, I really don't think that we're going to see interest rates.

Like, I'm not sure if they raise or they flatline, they'd stop raising rates or they

freeze them, but they're definitely not lowering rates for, I think, at least one to two years.

I know it sounds crazy, but quote me on that.

In any case, I think that's relevant because that inevitably those higher rates is very

difficult for companies to survive.

They can't get the venture, they can't get the debt that they need.

Essentially, the debt becomes very expensive that they have to take on.

And because of that, it's going to lead to a lot of layoffs due to, I think, what the

solution is going to be is you can't raise money to run your, or you can't raise funds

at low enough interest rates.

So essentially, you're going to have to become a more lean company.

You do that by laying off workers or cutting other costs.

But one of the most obvious ways to cut costs is to replace workers with AI in ways

that AI can do it.

So you're seeing this from Gizmodo right now.

The entire Spanish editorial team has completely been laid off.

They're just going to use AI to replace them.

And I know a lot of people are going to criticize that saying, like, oh, man,

like, this is really bad.

We can't let AI replace humans.

But like at the end of the day, if the company's going to go bankrupt or the

company's going to lay off their employees and use AI, they're going to lay off their

employees, use AI to survive.

And maybe that helps them get into a healthy position where they can go and hire

back people in the future, right?

Like it, maybe there's a, there's a positive silver lining to this.

But at the end of the day, I believe with the quantitative tightening we're

seeing in the economy right now, this 100% is, this is just the beginning.

And we're going to see this in a lot of different industries.

I've spoken on this a lot, so I won't harp on it too long.

But there's a phrase that everyone at this AI conference recently went to was

saying, and that is, you're not going to get replaced by AI, but someone that knows

how to use AI, you're going to get replaced by someone that knows how to use AI.

And the concept is like, don't worry, AI is not going to replace you.

People that are really good with AI will.

So you become the person that's really good with AI, you won't get replaced.

Okay.

I actually think a lot of people are just going to get replaced by AI.

Whether you know how to use, whether these Spanish editorial team knew how to

use chat, GPT or not, they all got completely replaced by AI.

So not to say, you know, don't learn AI.

I think you can learn AI, but inevitably a lot of jobs will go away.

And the only way to protect yourself still is to learn AI, but you're, you

might be removed from your company, but you'll find another company, um, become

an expert at AI, and it's your best bet to have long-term stability.

But I really do a, I believe AI is going to have a lot of mass layoffs.

Now, what does that look like in the future?

Do we have to do universal basic income is ever going to be unemployed?

Is everyone going to become entrepreneurs and be forced to start their own companies?

Or are we just going to see a trickle down approach where people from a lot of

the biggest firms are getting laid off, moving to smaller companies, right?

And actually, if you think about it, in the last couple of years, specifically

2021, when, you know, the market was super frothy, there was tons of money.

It was actually really, really hard for startups.

I specifically was in the startup space running a software company and it was

very hard to entice my, um, you know, CTO or some of my top engineers, they're

working part-time for us, um, on the project.

It was really hard to get them to want to commit to our startup full time because

they had these massive, um, super, super juicy salaries over at these Fortune

500 companies, um, that they were working at and getting them to try to come and

work in our startup was super hard.

So I actually think that there is a silver lining in the sense that with a lot

of these Fortune 500 companies kind of tightening their belt, um, and you were

seeing these kind of layoffs, um, now a lot of those people that are being laid

off, they have the opportunity while startups will have the opportunity to hire

some of these really talented developers that they were not able to get to before.

And I know like you can have empathy for the developers because they're getting

laid off from a big company, um, but I think overall for the overall economy,

the overall GDP, like a lot of where GDP is created and a lot of where, you know,

the economy has grown is in startups.

It's in new companies and new innovations.

And so having a system like this that is cutting the fat, I think it's really

helping for the economy, um, developers and really talented people will be able

to work in smaller companies.

Um, but when you have, you know, more talent, like think about it, there's

so much bureaucracy in some of these big companies.

And I know a lot of listeners come from big companies.

So I'm like, not a hundred percent bagging on it, but you all know what

I'm talking about with bureaucracy.

I've worked in these companies before and, uh, sometimes you have a really

innovative idea and it just never sees the light of day because bureaucracy

and your manager didn't like it and whatever.

Right.

When you're working in a small startup, you have a good idea.

A lot of times you're able to just run with it.

You're able to do it or you do it yourself and you can make some really creative

innovative things that did not exist before happened.

So I do think that we're going to see mass layoffs, um, from a lot of companies.

I think we're going to see some big shifts there, but I think that it's

actually going to be these top companies and a lot of the engineers will

trickle down and we'll see a lot of innovation.

A lot of growth will happen in the economy because of it.

I think it's healthy.

Um, it's not fun.

Change is never fun.

I understand that.

I empathize with that, but like it's inevitable.

And so yeah, I think this is really interesting.

Specifically, we're kind of seeing this with Gizmodo right now, but a lot of

companies are going to be going through this.

So back to Gizmodo, Matias S.

Xavier, who's a former writer at Gizmodo on Espanol.

He was the one I think that kind of revealed, uh, the whole platform had been discontinued.

So instead of human crafted content, the site now offers articles automatically

trained translated from the original version.

So they're just taking their, you know, Gizmodo English and they're having that.

I'll just translate with AI.

I think the problem was, um, you know, if you just try to use Google translate,

it's not perfect, but I think AI does a really good job of reading the article

and actually like saying the same thing, but correctly.

So a disclaimer on their Spanish site has now been added at the bottom of all

articles, warning readers that due to the, uh, intricacies of machine translation,

there can be slight differences.

Um, I think that's interesting.

Um, the switch to automated translation hasn't gone without hiccups.

Um, there's a bunch of people that, you know, were like on, on X or Twitter or

whatever, and they were like saying that there was some sort of like halfway

through an article, it switches mid read to Spanish.

And like, I guess they have some hiccups and they're like, I don't know.

It's funny because it would appear that these people are saying C, like it was a

bad idea to do the switch, but it's like, just a technical glitch to get it figured

out in a day or two.

That's not like, I don't know, that's not a big, a big deal.

Um, in any case, um, AZ Alderstone, who's a, which is a Spanish website,

reported that the Gizmodo in English team was, or in Spanish team was informed

about the change via video call.

Um, when reached for comment, Gizmodo, media didn't respond.

Um, and I think what's interesting, this isn't their first attempt to integrate

AI into their editorial process.

The company began posting AI generated articles on the main Gizmodo platform

as early as July.

However, those initial trials contained some factual inaccuracies that a lot of

people, again, um, you know, trumpet it as being like, see, you can't use AI when

in reality you can, you just have to get someone to fact check it.

And it's still a 10th of the cost of getting it 100% written by a human.

Um, and it can be just as good in my opinion.

Um, in any case, a lot of different staff members said they were quote unquote

blindsided by the decision to publish AI written content.

I don't see how they could be blindsided.

We read the writing on the wall.

This is the direction that the entire economy and the market is moving.

Love it or hate it.

It's going to happen.

But anyways, a lot of their editors were claiming that they were only informed

shortly before the articles went live and this led to widespread discontent

among journalists at Geo media's various outlets.

So GMG union, the union representing these journalists, even urged readers not

to engage with AI generated content.

Um, it should be noted that GMG union is part of the writers guild of America.

Um, and so is, uh, Vox media's editorial group.

In any case, um, there's a bunch of different ones that are part of this.

So the writers guild of America that was striking.

Um, and also like, what do you expect?

You go on strike and say, we're doing a strike so that no one can use AI to write

their content.

Okay.

Well, we need the writers.

So if you're all on strike, we're just going to use AI.

And once we use it and find out that it's pretty much as good.

If you have a, a, you know, a human journalist go and fact check and review

everything, which do you have to do anyways for an article, like when a

journalist writes something, you have to get the editorial board to go and review

and fact check it anyways.

So it's kind of, yeah, I don't know.

I don't think they're really helping their case.

In any case, the closure of gizmodo on a span, y'all marks the end of what was

Gawker media's first international venture.

Um, Gawker now, which is now defunct, had acquired the site going to be in 2012 to

launch the Spanish language platform.

Um, not sure why they did that.

They should just launched it without having to buy another company that they

then changed the name, whatever.

I guess they wanted the journalists or the, the team.

So, okay, makes sense.

As media organizations kind of continue to look at AI driven journalism, um,

geo media's recent decision will certainly have a lot of controversy, I think,

about ethical implications, accuracy and whatever.

And people, there's a lot of different complaints people have about this,

but you know, my opinion, um, I've explained it well on this podcast.

This is the, the direction of the economy.

And so companies are going to do this, love it or hate it.

This is what's happening.

And the other thing is, um, originally, like just think about this.

This is just what I want to leave you with is originally they did some AI

written Carl and Ted on the English one.

And they're like, we're not replacing journalists.

We're just like, okay, so we saw this from CNET earlier this year.

And it also got a lot of criticism.

And of course, where does the criticism come from?

The criticism usually comes from journalists.

Why are journalists, journalists criticizing this?

Obviously, there's a bias to this.

So also take that with a grain of salt, the criticism, but, um, CNET did the same

thing earlier this year where they did some AI art generated content.

Um, there was some like math in there because they were doing a con, an

article about like interest rates and the math, of course, by chat, chat,

GPT isn't perfect.

So there, the math was wrong.

And then everyone said, see, look, AI is bad.

It got the math wrong on the interest rates.

Okay, so the whole article's like information though was perfectly sound.

So all of the information on that article perfectly sound, they could just

have like a journalist go in and correct all of the math so that the interest

rate, the amortization table pretty much on the article is correct, whatever.

And then once that's done, the, the article would be a perfectly great article.

In any case, they started doing those, that AI content, um, they got criticism

by journalists, of course, because it's replacing journalists.

And, uh, I think what's interesting here is just the fact that if your

company is starting to replace you in a small way with AI and they're like,

don't worry, it's just like a small thing.

Okay.

Well, that's what, uh, Gizmodo was saying.

And just because like it, because the entire Spanish side of Gizmodo has been

shut down, I think the English editors really need to be looking at what they're

doing.

Now, do I think that Gizmodo is going to shut down all their English editors?

No, but what I do think is that their English editors really do need to start

leveraging AI to help them write their articles.

I know that it's a, it's a craft and AI could never possibly do it as good as

you, but actually it could, because you know what you can do?

You can literally take five articles you've written, post them into chat

GPT and say, based off of these, and not specifically chat GPT because of the

context window, but, um, you get the idea, you could use an API.

There's lots of ways you could do this.

You could train your own model on your own self.

I think that would be really smart.

If I was a journalist, I would have an AI model trained on myself.

Anyways, this is my exact style.

This is how I write articles.

This is my type of content.

Um, and then based off of that, you can give it all the facts for your new

content, for your new article, all of the information, the interviews, the quotes

you've done, paste it all in there and say, write me a thing, but a bing, but a

boom, it's going to do it.

You could probably put out 10 times as many articles.

Now, if you put out 10 times as many articles, there's no way I think that your

employer, after seeing a 10x increase in productivity would probably cut you.

Like at the end of the day, you will, like Gizmodo is going to need journalists

and editors to number one, review everything written by AI.

And number two, um, put together the content, right?

Because AI isn't going to go out and do interviews.

AI isn't going to go out in the field and do, you know, investigative journalism.

So there's all of the data gathering aspect that I think journalists are still

needed for data gathering and then fact checking after the fact about putting

the article together itself, a hundred percent.

I think you guys start leveraging AI if you want to be relevant.

And this isn't just for journalists.

This is your company blog.

This is your company's social media.

This is anyone working in any field.

Just like use AI to augment yourself, um, and get embedded in the process.

If you are looking for an innovative and creative community of people using

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I'll drop a link in the description to this podcast.

We'd love to see you there where we share tips and tricks of what is working

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We'd love to have you in the community.

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wherever you listen to your podcasts, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.