The AI fight brewing inside The New York Times

Unionized tech employees at The New York Times allege the company is violating their collective bargaining agreement by using AI tools to monitor employee performance. The Tech Guild says management refused to provide information about how AI has been used, future AI plans, and how AI will affect jobs and workflow. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge and also filed grievances related to the introduction of two internal AI tools that track and evaluate employee performance and activity. One tool, called DX, is described as an engineering productivity tool that tracks employees’ output.

"Unionized staff with the Tech Guild say Times management has refused to provide the union with information related to how the company has used AI, its plans for AI use in the future, and how it will affect employees' jobs and workflow. (The union filed an unfair labor practice charge earlier this month.) The Tech Guild, a NewsGuild of New York unit of around 700 software engineers, designers, product and project managers, and data analysts, also filed grievances saying Times management violated their collective bargaining agreement when it started using two internal AI tools that track and evaluate employee performance and activity."

"Unionized tech employees at the Times say the company is violating their contract by using AI tools to monitor employee performance. Unionized staff with the Tech Guild say Times management has refused to provide the union with information related to how the company has used AI, its plans for AI use in the future, and how it will affect employees' jobs and workflow."

"One of the AI tools, called DX, advertises itself as an engineering productivity tool that lets companies track employees' output"

Read at The Verge