The Los Angeles Times has launched a feature driven by artificial intelligence (AI) that will appear with some opinion content to help readers identify potential bias, owner and Executive Chair Patrick Soon-Shiong announced Monday.
“The purpose of Insights is to offer readers an instantly accessible way to see a wide range of different AI-enabled perspectives alongside the positions presented in the article,” Soon-Shiong wrote in a letter to readers, touting the move and other initiatives as “the next evolution of the L.A. Times to better engage with our audience.”
“I believe providing more varied viewpoints supports our journalistic mission and will help readers navigate the issues facing this nation,” he added.
The new tech tool, which has been referred to as a “bias meter,” faced backlash when the plan was first discussed in December, but Soon-Shiong defended the plan.
“Somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the article has some level of bias,” the billionaire health care mogul, who bought the newspaper in 2018, told CNN commentator Scott Jennings last year.
According to Monday’s email, the new tool will only be applied to the Times’s “Voices” content, which includes opinion articles and pieces that provide a “personal perspective,” including news commentary, criticism and reviews.
A disclaimer on the AI-driven effort, dubbed “L.A. Times Insights,” notes that the analysis it provides “is not created by the editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times and makes no judgment on the quality of any piece of journalism or the viewpoint it espouses.”
An opinion piece the Times published Monday from political commentator Matt K. Lewis about President Trump’s approach to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia after an explosive meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week includes the new Insights feature at the bottom of the article.
The AI tool determined that the “article generally aligns with a Center Left point of view.” It also provides four summary points with citations offering deeper context and four points providing alternate views on the issue.
