Seattle Times journalists picket over AI, calling for job protections in contract talks

What happened

The company has agreed that AI won't interview sources or write stories, but the union says other roles such as copy editors and photographers aren't protected. While the company has agreed to prohibit the use of AI to interview people or write articles, it has declined to extend protections to other newsroom roles, such as photojournalists, copy editors and social media producers, according to the union.

Seattle Times Union members picket outside the newspaper’s offices on Wednesday. The picket comes six months into contract negotiations that the union says are currently stalled over wages and AI use.

“Management has admitted at the bargaining table that it could use AI to replace jobs,” journalist Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks said in a speech. From the start of bargaining, the union says it has called for a contract in which “interviewing sources, writing stories, and all other journalistic and production related functions will be done by humans.”