After six months of negotiations, LAist journalists – as part of SAG–AFTRA – have finally come to terms to a successor agreement with management on everything except necessary safeguards and protections on the use of AI in the newsroom.

The tough truth is the recent proposals by management set the stage for them to replace journalists with AI in the pursuit of efficiency. Putting us on the path to be another AI-slop factory.

Our asks of management are simple:

• Keep LAist’s journalism human made. People must write and fact-check our articles, radio stories and social content. AI gets facts wrong, especially for events that no one has reported on yet. And in an era of disinformation, human-led newsroom is more accountable to you. Our reporters and producers have direct relationships with the community and if a person is responsible for a story, you know who to contact if you have praise or criticism.

• Protect our jobs. Do not use AI to justify laying off journalists, cut positions or leave open jobs unfilled.

• Do not force AI use. AI use must be voluntary. Many of our journalists have spent decades building their expertise and are capable of deciding when AI is the right tool for the job.

You trust LAist because of our long commitment to the community and prioritization of facts over efficiency. Management must protect the trust and relationships that’ve been built over decades. They must put these protections in writing.

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