Soon-Shiong has announced plans to use artificial intelligence to create a "bias meter" to check journalists' copy.
The billionaire described the idea in an interview with Scott Jennings, the CNN commentator Soon-Shiong just put on the Times editorial board.
He said that the "bias meter" will change copy so that "somebody could understand, as they read it, that the source of the article has some level of bias."
"... the reader can press a button, and get both sides of that exact same story based on that story and then give comments."
He intends to turn it on in January. I can't believe I'm hearing about this. Skynet for words. What happens when it starts writing the news on its own?
The union representing the news staff writers of the LA Times had something to say. "The newspaper's owner has publicly suggested that his staff harbors bias, without offering evidence or examples."
The downward spiral of the Los Angeles Times started when Soon-Shiong refused to allow the editorial board's recommendation to endorse Kamala Harris for president.
That caused a lot of subscribers to cancel their subscriptions, staff anger, and high publicity resignations such as Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Greene and Harry Litman, a long-time legal affairs columnist for the Times.
Litman said about the changes in operation, "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 said that major publishers have so far failed to adequately separate news and opinion which, "could be the downfall of what now people call mainstream media."
Just three of the eight editorial board members still remain from before the owner's decision not to allow the endorsement of Harris.
In his resignation letter, Litmann said, "Trump has made it clear that that he will make trouble for media outlets that have crossed him. Rather than acting with indignation at this challenge to his papers' critical function in a democracy, Soon-Shiong threw the paper to the wolves. That was cowardly."
This new artificial intelligence bias meter is just one more nail in the coffin of credibility for the Los Angeles Times. Is this the beginning of AI editors?
It's part of a very disturbing trend of television personalities and news outlets kowtowing to Trump.
