--- title: "CNET Hits Staff With Layoffs After Disastrous Pivot to AI Journalism" description: "After infamously pivoting to AI article writing, CNET owner Red Ventures appears to be hitting staff with a fresh round of layoffs." date: "2023-03-02" modified: "2023-03-02" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/cnet-layoffs-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "cnet" - "Media" - "red ventures" --- # CNET Hits Staff With Layoffs After Disastrous Pivot to AI Journalism ![After infamously pivoting to AI article writing, CNET owner Red Ventures appears to be hitting staff with a fresh round of layoffs.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* After using artificial intelligence to churn out dozens of articles that turned out to be rife with [errors]() and [plagiarism](), *CNET* owner Red Ventures is hitting its remaining human staff with a fresh round of layoffs. In an email today, company leadership announced the culling in apologetic tech-speak, citing simplifications in the company's "operations" and "tech stack." "Today we are implementing a reorganization of our team," reads the email, "which will result in a number of colleagues leaving the *CNET* Group." Though the scale of the layoffs is unclear, the email said that the company is keeping resources related to "consumer technology, home and wellness, energy, broadband and personal finance as our priority categories." Notably, those categories are ones that are particularly easy to monetize using affiliate links that give Red Ventures a kickback when a reader buys a product or signs up for a financial service — a system that, [*The Verge* reported earlier this year](), Red Ventures has used to transform *CNET* into an "AI-powered SEO money machine." Absent from the list of coverage areas being spared is news, where staffers have continued to conduct admirable journalism even under Red Ventures' pivot to AI-generated SEO content and editorial strategy that [some staffers say]() is favorable to the site's advertisers. Though Red Ventures didn't respond to a request for comment, sympathetic tweets from ex-*CNET* staffers seem to corroborate that layoffs are underway at the site. "Sending a lot of love to a lot of my former colleagues today," former *CNET* editor-at-large [Tim Stevens tweeted](). In [another tweet](), former *CNET* copy editor Dawnthea Price Lisco said that her ex-employer is "being gutted for parts" in a post expressing solidarity with the newly laid off. This is far from the first time the tech news site has hit staff with layoffs in recent history, but this time is significant given that it comes after it was revealed in January that *CNET* had for months been [quietly publishing AI-written articles](). The connection between the disastrous AI-generated articles and the layoffs is unclear, but the timing is striking. In the aftermath of the AI revelation, employees at the company have [decried the program](). The company has tried to save face, first by adding a more prominent disclaimer to its often [error-filled AI-written articles](), and then announcing that it was [pausing the use of algorithmic writing]() — only to backtrack from its backtracking as it [prepared to boot back up the text generating machine]() at the end of February. With this latest round of layoffs, the future of the AI-generated content — and perhaps of *CNET* itself — is as unclear as ever. One thing's for sure, though: for bosses, AI is a [great excuse]() to lay off workers. **More on *CNET*:** [*Leaked Messages Show How CNET's Parent Company Really Sees AI-Generated Content*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()