Artificial intelligence related job loss has been one of the most contested topics in the last few years. With AI-powered solutions such as autonomous cars and chatbots set to replace numerous job roles in the coming decade, it has become a norm for the media to treat any instance of an AI algorithm replacing a human worker with great hysteria, especially with the COVID-19 crisis hastening some of these cases. 

Into this burning fire, Microsoft added fuel when they announced earlier this month, that AI will be replacing some of its "journalists" who have been working on the Microsoft News or the "good old MSN home page" with AI algorithm. The Guardian reported the news and was soon followed up by major tech and non-tech publications slamming such a decision from the company amidst a crisis. 

Personally, I find this story misleading, especially as someone who knows many "journalists" who work on Microsoft News. However, since the news pierces perfectly fit into the scary narrative of AI stealing job, most of the readers or the reporters didn't seem to have taken any effort in separating the signal from noise. 

According to The Guardian, the journalists "who worked on the Microsoft site did not do original reporting, but they curated news articles produced by other media organisations. They occasionally edited the headlines and content to fit the MSN format, following strict editorial guidelines to ensure inappropriate or violent content was not served up to readers."

In fact, they were not journalists in any of the conventional definition of the term, as they neither did reporting, original writing nor editing. Their job role was pretty much to curate the content from numerous feeds and publications that actually do real journalism, and these workers were employed by PA Media, in the UK, with whom Microsoft ended their contract.

It has to be noted that not many content platforms these days use human content curators for the majority of the part, as algorithms capable of performing such task have gotten pretty good some years ago. Whether its Google News, YouTube feed, Facebook's NewsFeed or at any news aggregator platforms, these tasks are done in a personalised manner for the particular user by computer programs. 

It is indeed sad when people lose their job, especially during a crisis period. However, historically as we advance to a new stage propelled by a new technology, repetitive and basic jobs were always taken over by the machines. That is why we don't see many manned rickshaws on the road these days, which were replaced by automobiles. In the other hand, we have also seen many job roles thriving despite changes such as doctors, teachers to even journalists. 

People who are creating hysteria over a technology without in-depth understanding reminds me of those who banished people like Copernicus for suggesting that its the earth that actually revolves around the sun, and not the other way.