Insider Inc. is laying off roughly 10 percent of its workforce, letting go of some of its staffers, amid its recent call to its writers to use the viral AI chatbot, ChatGPT.
Insider, previously known as Business Insider, announced the latest job cut on the day Buzzfeed shut down its entire News division. Less than a month before the recent downsizing, Disney fired some of its ABC News employees last March as part of ongoing layoffs.
Insider Lays Off 10% of All Staff
As per a report by Forbes, a spokesperson from the Insider confirmed that they are cutting down their workforce by about 10 percent in its latest downsizing move. The job cuts include some of the staff writers in the news outlet.
The president of Insider Inc., Barbara Peng, emailed employees about the layoffs. Gizmodo got hold of the internal memo, which confirmed the downsizing.
Peng told her employees they would still receive 13 weeks of base pay despite the layoff, alongside two additional weeks for their last four weeks of work. On top of that, they get to keep their medical coverage until August 2023. So they still have a few months to use it.
The email also revealed that the company is set to offer them career support services. It should help them improve their resume. They could also take advantage of the one-on-one coaching sessions.
The Insider president wrote in the email, "Unfortunately, to keep our company healthy and competitive, we need to reduce the size of our team." She further disclosed that they have avoided taking this course and apologized for the casualties of the latest job cuts.
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Insider's ChatGPT AI Experiment
The latest round of layoffs at the Insider comes several days after the editor-in-chief of the online publication, Nich Carlson, started allowing writers to use AI tools like the viral OpenAI chatbot, ChatGPT. Futurism reports that Carlson believes the new technology will make writing "faster and better."
After trying out the AI chatbot for "many" hours, he concludes that "having access to it will make me a better global editor-in-chief for Insider." He adds that "generative AI can make all of you better editors, reporters, and producers, too."
With the recent experiment with ChatGPT AI, some speculate that the latest layoff is to blame. However, Gizmodo notes that the spokesperson of the publication says otherwise. In answer to queries asking if the AI experiment was to blame for the layoffs, the spokesperson was straightforward and said, "Of course not."
With that, Insider denies that its latest experiment with ChatGPT has nothing to do with the latest round of layoffs in the news outlet.
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