.
>>> If you've been on
Microsoft's home pang you may
have noticed interesting
headlines from -- there's an
obituary calling a late NBA
player useless.
We have been looking into why,
and a lot of this comes down to
company decisions on artificial
intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is just
now seeping into everything.
>> Yeah.
>> And causing chaos it seems.
>> And nowhere else -- nowhere
more so than Microsoft
apparently.
I think a lot of people say
Microsoft news, but hundreds of
millions of people get their
news from Microsoft because if
you buy a PC, a computer, that's
your home page very often.
And there's news there.
Up until 2018, Microsoft had ace
journalists working for them.
Now all that work is mostly done
by A.I.
Have a look.
>> Wow.
>> It felt like I was standing
in line at the grocery store
reading a "National enquirer"
front page.
>> Reporter: Farris kwar is
talking about Microsoft's home
page also known as msn.com.
Its aim on the top visited news
websites in the U.S. And around
the world.
>> It's absolutely huge.
It's installed on a lot of
machines that come with windows
software on it.
So people sometimes get that as
a default as their news source.
>> Reporter: Over the last few
months bizarre and false stories
have gone appearing on msn.com.
False claims that president
Biden fell asleep during a
moment of silence after the maui
wildfire, an obituary that
called a late NBA player
useless, and a false story
claiming a California politician
had resigned after attacks by
Elon Musk.
>> You had to be responsible in
what you put on the site because
so many people would read it and
could be swayed by it.
>> Reporter: Renn Pfeifer was a
contracted editor at nsn.com and
selected stories from news
outlets to feature on
Microsoft's site.
She was one of more than 800
editors employed by Microsoft as
of 2018.
>> I was there on and off for
eight years before I got laid
off to be replaced by A.I.
>> Reporter: In 2020, Renn and
her colleagues were told they
were losing their jobs.
CNN obtained a recording of the
call announcing the layoffs.
Editors at Microsoft, they were
told, were being replace bide
A.I. Automation.
>> It's full steam ahead for
automating all of the --
>> Reporter: Did you ever think
you'd have a situation where
you'd be replaced by A.I.?
>> No.
Not in a million years.
But here we are.
>> Reporter: MSN has agreements
with major news organizations
including CNN that allows it to
put their reporting on its site.
Recently fringe right-wing sites
have been featured prominently
on its home page, including
headlines like these attacking
president Biden.
>> Seeing what I'm seeing here
with MSN is just scary to me.
Like that can translate to
tangible votes.
>> Reporter: If they were going
to have a -- a front page that
is all about news, then they
should take that responsibility
seriously and understand that it
has implications for society.
>> Reporter: After his computer
software updated, Farris
Cowher's default home page
changed to Microsoft.
That's when he began to notice
something strange.
>> I think Microsoft is a fairly
trustworthy company.
I have -- don't think of them as
political in any way.
The content that was being
pushed definitely skewed to the
right.
>> Bidenomics proved Joe Biden
is a buffoon from American
insider.
Yeah, that would not have been
there before.
>> Reporter: Pfeifer says she
believes this is happening
because Microsoft replaced
editors with A.I.
>> Still appalled that they have
these website that's seem like
fronts.
Like that are not legit news
sources pumping out this
information on the home page.
>> Let's keep A.I. Under the
control of people.
It needs to be safe.
>> Reporter: But Microsoft won't
say how many people it has in
control of its news A.I.
Renn said the editors who worked
on her team who were hired
through a subcontractor were all
laid off.
>> What's the most important
thing that our society needs to
know at this point in our
history where an editor, human,
can make those determinations
and it really concerns me that
A.I. Is being used.
>> Reporter: On Tuesday "The
guardian" wrote to Microsoft
president Brad Smith to express
its concerns about Microsoft's
use of A.I.
Microsoft published a story from
"The guardian" about lily James,
a 21-year-old who was found dead
in Sydney, Australia.
Microsoft then published an
a.I.-generated poll next to the
story asking readers what do you
think is the reason behind the
woman's death.
"The guardian " CEO wrote, not
only is this sort of application
potentially distressing for the
family of the individual who was
the subject of the story, it is
also deeply damaging to "The
guardian's" hard-won reputation
for trusted, sensitive
journalism.
Microsoft said it launched an
investigation and shut off its
A.I. Polling feature.
A spokesperson told CNN that in
2021 the company shifted to a
system that picks stories by an
algorithm and said we are
committed to addressing the
recent issue of low-quality
articles contributed to the feed
and are working closely with our
content partners to identify and
address issues to ensure they
are meeting our standards.
>> Lot of people don't dig deep
and do their own homework to
facts check anything or take
things at face value.
There's far too much of that.
So they read this and take it as
the factual truth.
>> Reporter: So as you can see
there, Microsoft did not make a
person available to speak to us.
>> Noticed that.
>> Brad Smith, Microsoft's
president, really is on the
lecture circuit around the world
telling people how they should
be responsible with A.I.
But as we can see here,
Microsoft's own A.I. Is messing
up the news and potentially as
we go into election year,
hundreds of millions of people,
tens of millions of Americans
still go to this website daily.
>> Yeah.
>> Could potentially play into
the election.
>> Not to put a technical term
on it, but it seems like A.I.
Generates a lot of crap.
>> A lot of crap.
Hopefully our jobs are safe for
a while.
>> A while longer.
>> A.I.'s not replacing all the
journalists just yet.