LA Times Owner to Implement AI-Powered 'Bias Meter' Amid Controversy

Owner of Los Angeles Times says paper will employ AI-powered 'bias meter'

Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018, made the comments on a podcast hosted by conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who is soon joining the LA Times editorial board. The proposed move is the latest controversy to rock the newspaper which has suffered a wave of resignations and layoffs under Soon-Shiong's ownership. Most recently, Soon-Shiong blocked the paper from endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris in last month's presidential election, sparking outrage from many staff. The "bias meter", Soon-Shiong said, will be integrated into articles so that "somebody could understand, as they read it, that the source of the article has some level of bias". "And what we need to do is not have what we call confirmation bias, and then that story automatically, the reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story based on that story and then give comments," he added. Soon-Shiong told Jennings that he had been "quietly building" the AI tool "behind the scenes" and expressed his hope to launch it by this coming January. His comments quickly elicited a response from the union representing many of the LA Times newsroom staffers. "The newspaper's owner has publicly suggested his staff harbors bias, without offering evidence or examples" the statement reads. It adds: "Our members - and all Times staffers - abide by a strict set of ethics guidelines, which call for fairness, precision, transparency, vigilance against bias, and an earnest search to understand all sides of an issue. Those longstanding principles will continue guiding our work." The recent announcement of the "bias meter" comes as Soon-Shiong has, in recent weeks, expressed his desire to include more conservative voices to the paper's opinion section. "It is clear we need to rebirth the organization and allow dissenting views and ALL voices to be expressed ... whether from the left, right or center," he said in November. "This won't be easy, but I'm committed to making this happen and to help heal our divided nation through a platform that enables civil discourse." Last week, he announced that Jennings would be joining the LA Times editorial board. In a statement, Jennings said that he planned to "represent those Americans who believe they are often ignored or even ridiculed in legacy media and applaud Dr Soon-Shiong's move to bring balance to the editorial board." Soon-Shiong has faced criticism in recent months after he blocked the LA Times editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president. This decision triggered a wave of subscribers to cancel their subscriptions, staff anger and high-profile resignations at the publication, including recent Pulitzer prize winner Robert Greene and Harry Litman, a senior legal affairs columnist for the Times' opinion page. In a statement on Thursday, Litman said that his resignation was a "protest and visceral reaction against the conduct of the paper's owner, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong". "Soon-Shiong has made several moves to force the paper, over the forceful objections of his staff, into a posture more sympathetic to Donald Trump," he said. "Given the existential stakes for our democracy that I believe Trump's second term poses, and the evidence that Soon-Shiong is currying favor with the president-elect, they are repugnant and dangerous."

LA Times owner adding AI 'bias meter' to articles

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, is sparking backlash with a decision to add a "bias meter" to articles the news organization publishes and other editorial decisions. Soon-Shiong told CNN commentator Scott Jennings on a recent podcast episode he is working behind the scenes to implement the tool, which will use AI to gauge bias in news articles. "Somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the article has some level of bias," Soon-Shiong said. The billionaire healthcare mogul sparked similar blowback among staff with a decision not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Soon-Shiong's comments on the incoming "bias meter" sparked the resignation of Harry Litman, one of its longtime columnists and commentators. "I don't want to continue to work for a paper that is appeasing Trump and facilitating his assault on democratic rule for craven reasons," Litman wrote in an entry on Substack this week. "Given the existential stakes for our democracy that I believe Trump's second term poses, and the evidence that Soon-Shiong is currying favor with the President-elect, they are repugnant and dangerous." Soon-Shiong defended his decisions during his conversation with Jennings. "There has to be some level of being a trusted source," he said. "Everybody has a right to an opinion, but it really shouldn't be an eco chamber of opinion. We need to create some level of balance of opinion ... nobody has really done that and it could be the downfall of mainstream media."

Billionaire Owner of LA Times Plans to Use an AI-Powered â€~Bias Meter’ on Editorials

An algorithm could soon be dictating how readers should interpret the paper's own political coverage. The billionaire owners of media companies are increasingly making their voices heard. Elon Musk is X's top poster, and notably used the social media platform to help Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election. Jeff Bezos recently put a halt to the practice of presidential endorsements at the Washington Post, just in time to (again) help Trump. Now, amidst other drastic changes to its workforce and culture, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times has said that he wants to integrate an AI-powered "bias meter" into the paper's coverage, in an apparent effort to make its reporting more politically neutral. News of the bias meter was first spotted by blogger Oliver Darcy, who wrote Wednesday about the apparent plan. Soon-Shiong initially mentioned the bias meter on the podcast of pro-Trump CNN contributor (and recent LA Times editorial board member) Scott Jennings. The point of the meter would be so that “someone could understand, as a reader, that the source of the article has some level of bias,†he told Jennings. Soon-Shiong elaborated that readers would be able to “press a button and get both sides of that exact same story, based on that story, and then give comments.†Soon-Shiong has said he wants to have such a function at the paper by as early as January of 2025. Little is known about how such a meter would actually work. However, Darcy's apparent push for algorithmically enforced "neutrality" comes at a time when sources close to the paper claim the billionaire is increasingly showing his own lack of it. Indeed, Darcy's article notes that Soon-Shiong has increasing "morphed into a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Jennings fanboy" and that since "Trump’s victory in November, Soon-Shiong has turned to X to criticize the news media, praise Trump’s cabinet picks, and appeal to a MAGA audience." Soon-Shiong also previously sought a role in the first Trump administration. Soon-Shiong recently fired a huge amount of staffers at the paper, laying off 115 peopleâ€"in one of the single largest workforce reductions in the paper's history. Other notable figures, like its editorials editor, have recently stepped down. All of the changes at the paper, combined with Darcy's apparent rightward shift, have forced Times writers into a pessimistic corner. “The man who was supposed to be our savior has turned into what now feels like the biggest internal threat to the paper,†one anonymous staffer apparently told Darcy. Another anonymously quoted employee made the situation at the West Coast's largest paper sound grim: "We've gone through ups and downs," they said. "But in previous times, there were always people who saw the upside. It is different now." While the idea of enforcing standards of neutrality in political reporting is a fine idea, the notion of using an algorithm to do it seems questionable at best. AI is still a developing technology and, as has been demonstrated time and time again, it is not a failsafe replacement for human judgment. It's often just simply wrong. Algorithms can also be programmed to have their own biases, so unless Soon-Shiong's bias meter is open-source and auditable, it will be of little value to readers.