Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify the difference between the Los Angeles Times’ “bias meter,” which was never launched, and its AI-generated Insights feature, which provides context on some editorial articles.
The Los Angeles Times has “moved on” from the AI-generated “bias meter” that owner Patrick Soon-Shiong wanted to establish, managing editor Hector Becerra said in a recent meeting.
There paper is, however, still using the Insights feature, which is also AI-generated. Insights, which functions somewhat like Grok or Community Notes on X, made headlines last month when the note it added to Gustavo Arellano’s column about the KKK, included the phrase that the Klan was not “an explicitly hate-driven movement.”
In an April 4 Zoom meeting, shared to a blog for former Times staffers, Becerra said he was relieved that an actual meter — like those displayed on All Sides — never came to pass. “Thank God there is no real bias meter … I can’t say that anybody was a huge fan of it. It’s a bit of a distraction, but I think people mostly moved on.”
The following day, the Insights note was yanked from that column but is still in use on other editorials. It is not used on any news stories.
Becerra explained in the April 4 meeting, “That citation did not defend the KKK. But it was written in such a passive kind of voice and almost, like, backwards, that I think some people misread it as almost being too soft. And then it got picked up by media: ‘AI defends KKK.’”
He added, “I have to be honest with you, that kind of pissed me off, because media, in general, we should be better than that. There is so much disinformation going on. Let’s be precise about what it actually said and what it actually did.”
As Arellano himself pointed out in a follow-up to his column on March 7, only part of what the AI had added was included in the news pick-ups.
“Local historical accounts occasionally frame the 1920s Klan as a product of ‘white Protestant culture’ responding to societal changes rather than an explicitly hate-driven movement, minimizing its ideological threat,” Arellano wrote, italicizing the last four words.
Arellano noted at the end of his March 7 article that he had earlier predicted that “whatever AI program the Los Angeles Times would end up using on its opinion pieces, it would self-immolate the moment it encountered one of mine.”
On March 3 when he introduced Insights, Soon-Shiong said that it would “offer readers an instantly accessible way to see a wide range of different AI-enabled perspectives alongside the positions presented in the article.” He also said, “I believe providing more varied viewpoints supports our journalistic mission and will help readers navigate the issues facing this nation.”
