Last week, G/O Media, the parent company of Gizmodo, laid off the staff of its Spanish-language site, Gizmodo en Español, and began using AI translations of English articles to replace their work. Matías S. Zavia, a former Gizmodo writer, publicly revealed the layoffs,. Zavia posted on social media, expressing that Gizmodo en Español had been transformed into a self-publishing platform primarily relying on AI for translations.

‍

Gizmodo en Español previously had a small, dedicated team that created original content for Spanish-speaking readers and translated articles from Gizmodo's English site. The website now features newly published articles linked to their English counterparts, accompanied by a disclaimer about automatic translation and potential nuances lost in the process. However, this transition to AI translation has faced challenges, such as articles unexpectedly switching from Spanish to English midway, possibly due to issues with the AI translation system. G/O Media's decision to opt for AI over human writers reflects a broader trend among media companies experimenting with AI tools to increase content production while reducing labor costs, though it remains controversial within the journalism community due to concerns about quality and accuracy.

‍