Journalists at Politico in the US have won a ruling over the rollout of AI tools as a nationwide News Not Slop campaign was launched.
The journalists at Axel Springer-owned Politico and E&E News (Politico’s energy and environment brand for professionals) in the US, represented by the PEN Guild, went to arbitration in a dispute with management over the use of AI tools.
The dispute centred around a “Live Summaries” feature used during the 2024 Democratic Convention and a Capitol AI Report-Builder tool available for Politico Pro subscribers.
According to the PEN Guild the arbitrator found: “Live Summaries were posted in prime ‘above-the-scroll’ homepage placements without human editing, outside the normal content system, and were not corrected despite containing factual errors, missing context, and violations of Politico’s Stylebook.
“Capitol AI Report-Builder generated 500-word reports, complete with headlines and citations to journalists’ bylined work, without any editorial review, despite containing glaring errors and misinterpretations that would not meet newsroom standards.
“In both cases, Politico failed to give the Guild the required notice or opportunity to bargain.”
Politico staff’s union contract states that the company must “give 60 days’ notice and engage in good-faith bargaining before introducing new AI tools that substantively materially impact job duties or could lead to layoffs”, the PEN Guild said. It also requires human oversight of AI usage.
News Guild lawyer Amos Laor said: “AI tools may be new, but the legal principles we secured in the agreement are not: management must provide notice, bargain with the union, and ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of workers’ rights or diminish their work.
“For journalists, issues of journalistic integrity are directly tied to their reputation, relationship with readers, and ability to perform their duties, and we view the protection of newsroom ethical standards as an integral part of their labor rights.”
Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and global editor-in-chief John Harris said they respected the arbitration decision but noted: “The media landscape is shifting as we speak, and we must adapt quickly.” Scroll down for full statement.
The move comes as the News Guild, which represents 27,000 journalists across the US, launched a campaign called News Not Slop.
‘Journalists must have the final say in published work’
Chair of the PEN Guild (and Politico reporter) Ariel Wittenberg said: “We’ve seen countless examples of media companies’ haphazard implementation of AI in our newsrooms and the damage it causes to the credibility of the news industry.”
The campaign urges readers to sign a petition stating: “AI can be a tool to support journalism, but many news organizations have deployed the technology in unethical ways without a human behind it. This undermines the integrity of journalism and has spread misinformation on topics like abortion, national politics, oil and gas policy, high school sports and product reviews.”
The petition calls for safeguards and transparency around the use of AI in journalism.
The News Guild has published a list of demands, including that AI should be used for “assistance, not for original work creation”.
It said: “Technology, like AI, can be a very helpful tool to speed up and automate tasks. It can help a novice programmer write faster code to scrape data from a website. It can help sift through hundreds of thousands of emails for an investigation.
“However, it should remain a supplement to human work and should not be used to write and publish articles without human oversight. Machines create slop without human control, don’t have feelings and don’t care about the facts. Journalists must have the final say in published work.”
Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner has called on staff to use AI in “all areas of work” saying in June: “Digital is the new print. AI is the new digital.”
Some 83% of journalists (out of 918 respondents) were strongly concerned that AI would have a negative impact on public trust in journalism.
‘Change has accelerated faster than any of us could have imagined
Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and global editor-in-chief John Harris’s joint statement to staff in full:
“Nearly four months ago, we announced POLITICO’s company-wide approach to AI. In that short time, change has accelerated faster than any of us could have imagined. New products like Pulse, Atlas and Particle are already transforming how people find and consume information. Meanwhile, major tech platforms like Google, Apple, and Meta are shaping new reader habits and creating direct competition for our audience’s attention.
“The media landscape is shifting as we speak, and we must adapt quickly. If we are creative and committed, and we work together, we will ensure that we harness these changes in ways that make our publication stronger – for our audience, our subscribers and for our present and future employees.
“For those who aren’t aware, we’ve been engaged in an arbitration process with PEN Guild, the union representing much of our US newsroom’s workforce, about our use of some AI-powered products. That process concluded last week. We respect the decision that was made and will follow through on our commitments to that process, as well as to our collective bargaining agreement with the members of PEN Guild.
“We will continue to work with the members of the PEN Guild, as well as with everyone across the company, to deliver on our mission: to produce original reporting, deeply sourced and vetted, in a timely manner and in the most relevant format for our users. At Politico, we do not plan on being left behind; we will lead the industry and deliver for our audience in this new chapter. And we will rely on all of you to do it.
“Our greatest advantage is what we already have: a newsroom full of journalists and editors who understand power, politics, and policy better than anyone else. Our original reporting, proprietary data, expert voice, and the judgment of our reporters are what makes us different.
“Machines can scrape and summarise, but they can’t sit in the room or walk the hallways, build trust with sources, or sense the quiet shifts in tone or alliances behind the scenes that drive real stories. That’s what we do best — from Sacramento to Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin, New York, and Washington, D.C.
“At the same time, we’re embracing technology to make our work more efficient, scale our growth and innovate our product offerings to connect with readers and meet the needs of our subscribers. We’ll begin sharing regular updates on the competitive AI landscape in #ai-landscape, so everyone can stay informed. We’ll also hold quarterly Q&As at Scoop Live to discuss what we’re learning and where we’re headed next.
“This is a moment for experimentation and creativity. Let’s lean in with curiosity and discipline and disrupt as Politico has always done.”
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