WGA Zeroes In On AI Protections In CBS News Contract Negotiations To 'Safeguard Journalism As A Profession'
Artificial intelligence is taking center stage in yet another set of union negotiations as the Writers Guild of America began talks this week with CBS News on a new collective bargaining agreement.
The WGA represents 270 news writers, producers, promotions writer-producers, editors, graphic artists, and news desk associates at CBS News — all of whom it says are imminently threatened by the lack of journalistic protections against AI.
More from Deadline
WGA East Slams MSNBC's 'Mass Layoffs' As 99 Staffers Brace For Impact Amid Network Shakeup
IATSE Urges Against Kennedy Center Cancellations, Citing Removal Of "Critical Opportunities" For Crew
CBS Warns That FCC Action On '60 Minutes' Complaint Would Create "A Less Free World" Where Government Becomes "A Roving Censor"
'This is bigger than a question about a wage increase. This is fundamentally a question about, How is this new technology that a lot of folks have invested significant amounts of capital in going to impact an industry that is the lifeblood of our civic life?' WGA East Executive Director Sam Wheeler tells Deadline. 'We view journalists as essential workers. We view their work as absolutely critical to healthy society and healthy democracy. So given the absence of standards, certainly from the federal government, we believe that collective bargaining is the best way to address those and to safeguard journalism as a profession.'
The guild is looking to the provisions in its recently ratified contract with ABC News as the foundation for its CBS News contract. Those provisions require the news organization to notify the union about any significant implementations of AI in the newsroom and protect permanent staff from losing their positions due to said AI usage.
The WGA's contract with ABC News also allows staffers to decline a byline on any material created with the assistance of AI, and ensures that AI-created content is held to the same journalistic standards as any other news content.
'This contract is now the floor in terms of what we expect to see from our employers in this area,' Wheeler said. 'AI, as it exists right now, has serious problems as both a news gathering tool and a news writing tool. I mean, it plagiarizes. It spreads misinformation. It also doesn't have the judgment or experience of a human writer, doesn't have the ability to put events into context in the way a human writer can.'
A CBS News staffer who spoke to Deadline on the condition of anonymity expressed that the accuracy of AI tools is a top concern, 'especially now, when the media is being scrutinized so much.'
'Who's double checking it and how do we verify the sources that the AI has pulled to put the story together?' the staffer said, adding that, as AI becomes more sophisticated, it is growing increasingly difficult to verify the accuracy of information or, more importantly, video and audio files. 'We really have to scrutinize everything that we do and to make sure that we are putting factually correct information on the air and giving it to the public.'
AI has become a hot topic in labor negotiations over the past several years, especially with the WGA, which went on strike against the major Hollywood studios in 2023 in part due to their unwillingness to discuss AI protections. Ultimately, the guild won some historic provisions to serve as a baseline for future negotiations, including contractual language to define a writer as a human.
However, the guild can only do so much to protect its members against AI, especially given the lack of federal regulation against the technology. So far, the unions have also been fairly unsuccessful at getting the major studios and companies to engage with the ways that AI may be negatively impacting their bottom line.
'It's worth noting that all of these tools are based on just wholesale theft of our members work,' Wheeler said, explaining that, while protections for journalists may look a bit different from those for television and film writers, they all align in the fact that most members do not own a vast majority of their work, and therefore do not have much legal recourse in terms of how its used to train AI models.
It's likely that AI will remain a huge priority for collective bargaining in the coming years. So far, the unions have focused primarily on building a solid foundation for further provisions regarding AI, given that the technology is still rapidly advancing. While some newsrooms have begun to use AI, many have not.
While it may not be ubiquitous in newsrooms quite yet, Wheeler says 'members view it as a really imminent threat and something that needs to be handled through collective bargaining.'
Negotiations between the WGA and CBS News are expected to run through next week.
Best of Deadline
'The White Lotus' Season 3 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Arrive On Max?
How Jon Gries' Return To 'The White Lotus' Could Shape Season 3
Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman admits what you learn during college may not matter—it's this skill that can help Gen Z land entry-level jobs
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman says what young people learn in college isn't the most important thing in landing a job. Being able to leverage AI tools, tackle new labor market challenges, and leverage connections is more essential for Gen Z seeking employment—and his advice echoes that of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The stable career path of going to college and landing a cushy six-figure office role is being disrupted by AI. Now, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman admits to rising college graduates that it may not even matter whether you majored in computer science or art history—connections and flexibility are the new hot commodities. 'What you should take forward from your college degree isn't necessarily the thing you learned in X-101,' Hoffman said in a recent video on his YouTube channel. 'It isn't specific degrees, specific courses, [or] even necessarily specific skills that are relevant to you.' Rather, the tech entrepreneur believes that being nimble in today's job market is a massive asset: 'It's your capacity to say, 'Hey, here is the new tool set, here's the new challenge.' That is actually what the future work's going to look like. One thing is to not focus on the degree, but to focus on how you learn and to be continually learning,' Hoffman said. 'The other part of college that's super important, that you should not forget, is that life is a team sport, not just an individual sport,' he continued. 'You can help each other.' Young job-seekers who effectively navigate the new world of work—by leveraging connections, constantly learning, and mastering AI—will have the upper hand, Hoffman concluded. And unfortunately for those saddled with debt, getting a college degree isn't the only way to develop these traits. There's no question that many Gen Zers have already had a rough start in their careers—graduating into a post-COVID way of work, with AI agents being positioned as their new coworkers. Some employers have even branded the generation as lazy and unorganized, but Hoffman thinks Gen Z has one advantage that hiring managers go crazy for. The LinkedIn cofounder said young people are part of 'generation AI': As digital natives who grew up with advanced technology at their fingertips, they are in the best position to leverage that skill. It may be Gen Z's ticket to landing a job. 'Bringing the fact that you have AI in your tool set is one of the things that makes you enormously attractive,' the 57-year-old billionaire said. It's why, despite all the noise around AI threatening to steal entry-level roles, the technology may be Gen Z's best weapon to find work. In the past month, both OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and LinkedIn chief economic opportunity officer Aneesh Raman have waved the warning flag that AI could rival junior employees. Hoffman agreed that AI may make the job search worse for young people—but recommended that Gen Z job searchers use the technology to create their own opportunities. 'AI is changing the [job] landscape, [and] may make entry-level jobs harder to get, may make employers uncertain about who they're looking for and employing,' Hoffman continued. 'Then you say, 'Well, okay, how do I use the current circumstances, the disruption, to make this better? How do I use AI to identify what possible new opportunities might be?'' Gen Z grew up thinking that doing well in college will score you a high-paying role after graduation—but that career trajectory is no longer a promise. Even Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, predicted that AI could eliminate roughly 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the coming years. Instead of burying their heads in the sand, young people can redirect their strategy to be a hot hiring commodity, leaders say. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been particularly outspoken on the issue; he's a huge proponent of the idea that being an AI user is a protective quality in job market disruption. 'Every job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable,' Huang said at the Milken Institute's Global Conference in May. 'You're not going to lose your job to an AI, but you're going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.' This story was originally featured on
The Verge
31 minutes ago
- The Verge
Microsoft has started testing its AI agent in the Windows 11 Settings app.
First announced last month, the feature lets users describe what they need in Settings, like 'my mouse pointer is too small.' The AI agent will then provide suggestions about how to address the issue, and can even fix it for them if users give permission. Microsoft is bringing the AI agent to Windows 11 Insiders in the Dev Channel, but only for Snapdragon-based Copilot Plus PCs to start.
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Amazon joins the big nuclear party, buying 1.92 GW for AWS
Amazon tapped into an emerging trend this week, one that's seeing big tech firms buy power from existing nuclear power plants. The tech company will power a chunk of its AWS cloud and AI servers using 1.92 gigawatts of electricity from Talen Energy's Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Amazon is the latest hyperscaler to go direct to big nuclear operators, following on the heels of Microsoft and Meta. Amazon's deal was announced Wednesday, but it's not entirely new, instead modifying an existing arrangement with Talen. The old version had Amazon building a data center next to the Susquehanna power plant, siphoning electricity directly from the facility without first sending it to the grid. That deal was killed by regulators over concerns that customers would unfairly shoulder the burden of running the grid. Today, Susquehanna provides power to the grid, meaning every kilowatt-hour includes transmission fees that support the grid's maintenance and development. Amazon's behind-the-meter arrangement would have sidestepped those fees. This week's revisions shift Amazon's power purchase agreement in front of the meter, meaning the AWS data center will be billed like other similar customers who are grid-connected. The transmission lines will be reconfigured in spring of 2026, Talen said, and the deal covers energy purchased through 2042. But wait, there's more: The two companies also said they will look to build small modular reactors 'within Talen's Pennsylvania footprint' and expand generation at existing nuclear power plants. Expanding existing power plants is typically an easier way to add new nuclear. They might include switching to more highly enriched fuel to produces more heat, tweaking the settings to squeeze out more power, or renovating the turbines for a bigger bump. Microsoft kicked off the trend last year when it announced that it would work with Constellation Energy to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island, a $1.6 billion project that will generate 835 megawatts. Meta hopped aboard earlier this month, also with Constellation, to buy the 'clean energy attributes' of a 1.1 gigawatt nuclear power plant in Illinois. Amazon and Talen's pledge to build new small modular reactors is a longer shot, though there, too, Amazon is in good company with its peers. Several startups pursuing the concept with the hopes of cutting construction costs by mass producing parts. Amazon has invested in an SMR startup, X-energy, which is planning to add 300 megawatts of nuclear generating capacity in the Pacific Northwest and Virginia. New generation at existing reactors and new SMRs are intended 'to add net-new energy to the PJM grid,' Talen said, referring to the region's grid operator. That last bit is likely a bid to head off any criticism from regulators about leaving ratepayers holding the bag.
