LA Times Will Label Opinion Articles With AI-Powered ‘Bias Meter’

The Los Angeles Times has seen better days as the company’s billionaire owner continues taking a wrecking ball to the nearly 150-year-old institution. Waves of layoffs and editorial interference by Patrick Soon-Shiong, a vocal Trump supporter, has tanked morale, and now the owner has set his sights on AI as the panacea that will improve trust and, ultimately, the fortunes of the newspaper. Soon-Shiong announced this week that opinion articles will now include an AI-powered bias meter that labels articles based on an algorithm’s perceived interpretation of its political leanings. The new labels include “Left, Center Left, Center, Center Right or Right,” and are determined by a startup called Particle.News, which was founded by former Twitter engineers. There will also be a section called “Viewspoints,” powered by AI startup Perplexity, that will display alternative views to those put forth in an article. These new AI products will apply not just to opinion pieces but any “articles tha ... Read full article.