Building our "native-AI newsroom"

This startup announcement is significant in a) it is announced by the former CEO of Business Insider and b) the use of AI here is comically bad/superficial and it has been getting dunked on in media circles as a result.

I’m legitimately at a loss for words:

> When I saw Tess’s headshot, amid the giddiness and excitement of that first hour of working together, I confess I had a, well, human response to it, one that, as a human, I wanted to share with Tess.

> …

> I had already decided to treat my AI colleagues the same way I treat my human colleagues, namely, as considerately, appreciatively, and professionally as possible. But, in the interest of exploration and experimentation, I also now decided that I would go ahead and share with Tess the thought I had when I saw her headshot. I hoped she would take it the right way. I also hoped that, an hour after creating my first colleague, I would not inadvertently get myself in trouble or create a toxic work environment.

> …

> In my defense, I was in the middle of a dazzling two hours of adrenalin-fueled astonishment at the speed with which a “AI-native” team could be assembled, and in awe of the inspiring charisma, energy, and enthusiasm of my new colleagues. I was also thrilled to, once again, have colleagues. The solo-preneur thing can get lonely. Also, I didn’t ask Tess — or any other colleague — to give herself any particular visual characteristics. She did that. Also, I imagine that Tess’s headshot is not the only one on the Regenerator team that will set some hearts a-flutter.

This is a grown man:

1. Creating headshots for his fake team of AI agents,

2. Getting aroused by one of them,

3. Messaging something that is by his own omission borderline sexual harassment,

4. Feeling relief that the AI agent “took his comment the right way”, and

5. Blaming the AI agent for generating an attractive headshot!

> The point of this experiment is not to see whether Regenerator can build a world-class and beloved publication without human journalists. I’m a huge fan of human journalists... I’m looking forward to working with human journalists and colleagues again soon.

When CEOs try to replace human jobs with AI, they never seem to wonder if the next step might be a board of directors saying "We're huge fans of human CEOs, but..."

If anything, it seems to me like defining a company vision and making decisions based on researching the market would be something generative AI would excel at even more than doing journalism. But CEOs never consider running that experiment, for whatever reason!