NewsGuild president writes to ProPublica management: Get serious on AI
Artificial intelligence is guaranteed to shake up journalism in varied and unexpected ways. This could be a moment in which experienced journalists leverage a powerful new tool to produce even bigger and better investigations. Or it could be one in which management pivots to yet another new technology without considering the ethical and economic considerations, leading to a degradation of our journalism and our business model.
Responsible implementation of AI is contingent on workers — those of us who actually produce the journalism for which our publications are known — having a say in how it’s used.
Unionized journalists across The NewsGuild have spoken in one voice, saying unequivocally that we want to produce “News Not Slop.” And in December, 17 unions representing nonprofit newsrooms — including the ProPublica Guild — and freelance contributors to those publications came together to lay out AI principles that should be adopted across all nonprofit newsrooms. Such guidelines would protect the integrity, accuracy and quality of our journalism amidst the integration of AI tools.
ProPublica’s management recently unveiled its own AI policy, which includes zero protections for our members or our jobs. Unlike our contract, the policy is unenforceable. Because management implemented this policy unilaterally without bargaining over its terms, we have brought an unfair labor practice charge to the National Labor Relations Board.
ProPublica’s management is positioning itself to be on the wrong side of history if they continue resisting our calls to agree to contract language guaranteeing worker protections and input on the topic of AI. NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss shares our unit’s concerns, and he wrote to ProPublica’s leadership today, urging them to do the right thing and agree to guardrails in our contract to ensure the ethical use of AI.
You can read the full letter Schleuss sent to ProPublica below:
Dear Robin Sparkman and ProPublica board of directors:
Our world needs more investigative journalism in the public interest. Continuing ProPublica’s mission will require a strong, fair collective bargaining agreement that uplifts journalistic integrity.
And that means ProPublica needs to have contractual language prohibiting any potential for artificial intelligence to replace journalists and other workers who make ProPublica the important publication it is today.
As the rare union leader with a background in journalism and computer programming, I fully support the need to leverage technology to improve our ability to tell stories.
And there are many recent examples of how AI can be helpful in reporting, when used ethically. For example, ProPublica journalists published the “Deleting DEI” story, which chronicled how nonprofit organizations have removed language connected to diversity, equity and inclusion. Reporters used AI to help find DEI related scrubs from nonprofit statements. In “Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies,” reporters used AI to help categorize job types into groups. And then reporters manually checked them all.
ProPublica journalists, represented by the Guild, have shown how AI can be used ethically, and they deserve newsroom leadership who agrees with its ethical use.
Unfortunately, your leadership team is refusing common sense provisions at the bargaining table that would protect both jobs as well as the integrity of the journalism they produce. And now, 92% of ProPublica’s workers have voted to walk off the job in part due to the company’s stance on AI, in addition to its position on job security, layoff protections and wages.
ProPublica management should follow the example set by nonprofit news organizations such as Grist, the Associated Press and others. For example, CalMatters has agreed to:
protect jobs from being eliminated because of AI
protect the salaries of employees from being reduced because of AI
listen to workers’ input when evaluating the use of AI and get the consent of employees before handing off material to a third-party company for training AI systems
a strong editorial integrity clause, ensuring that AI is clearly labeled and is not published unless several requirements are met
obtain the consent of employees before impersonating someone using AI
CalMatters agreed to these protections more than a year ago. Why would ProPublica management refuse similar protections?
Time is quickly running out for your leadership team to make a decision that will determine whether the public can trust ProPublica on this important issue.
I sincerely hope you decide to stand with the journalists and other workers who make ProPublica the investigative powerhouse that it has become.
Jon
cc: Paul Sagan
Claire Bernard
Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Mark Colodny
Steve Daetz
Angela Filo
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Anu Khosla
Jonathan Klein
Carrie Lozano
Claire Hoffman
Katie McGrath
Bobby Monks
James M. Stone
Charles Whitaker
Paul Steiger
--
Jon Schleuss
he/him
President
The NewsGuild - Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA)
