Die Welt and Bild newspaper journalists to be replaced by ChatGPT

Publishing concern Axel Springer is restructuring, during which some of the journalists will be fired and replaced by the ChatGPT chat bot. The cuts will affect two German publications: Die Welt and Bild. About this in letter to employees said Axel Springer CEO Matthias Döpfner.

Axel Springer is one of the largest European publishing and media concerns, publishing over 150 newspapers and magazines in more than 32 countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, etc.

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to make independent journalism better than ever, or simply replace it,” Döpfner said.

According to him, AI tools could “revolutionize” the media and will soon be able to aggregate information better than professional journalists. Döpfner believes that only those who are able to provide the audience with unique information will survive in such conditions.

Matthias Döpfner did not specify the number of employees who will be replaced, but promised that the layoffs would not affect reporters, authors or specialized editors. In his opinion, they should focus on investigative journalism and original texts.

In the letter, the CEO also mentioned the publisher’s plans to focus on the US market and implement full digitalization, stopping the release of paper publications.

Employees at Die Welt and Bild are not the only ones to have been made redundant. After laying off 12% of its employees, online publisher BuzzFeed, known for its pop culture articles, quizzes and note articles, announced that will start using ChatGPT for content creation and custom quizzes.