Once a respected business publication, Quartz, after a confusing period filled with low-quality AI-generated content, was ultimately sold off cheaply, resulting in the near-total decimation of its editorial team. This serves as a stark warning to the media industry about the potentially devastating consequences of blindly embracing inferior AI.
As recounted by its co-founder, Zach Seward (now head of AI initiatives at the New York Times) in a blog post, Quartz has changed hands several times since its inception in 2012. Last week, it was sold again to Canadian software company Redbrick, along with the business website The Inventory, for an undisclosed sum. In this transaction, all but the editor-in-chief and executive editor were laid off.
Image Source: AI-generated image, licensed from Midjourney
Seward lamented, “Quartz is now a zombie brand, the most cynical move in media. I never wanted to write this while talented people still worked there. Now it can rest.”
Quartz’s previous owner, G/O Media, under its controversial CEO Jim Spanfeller, had already shown a pathological obsession with artificial intelligence. Before selling Quartz, G/O Media had aggressively pushed AI-generated content across its various media brands, including Gizmodo, Deadspin, The AV Club, and Jalopnik, resulting in uniformly disastrous outcomes filled with misinformation, outdated content, and outright plagiarism. Quartz itself was not spared, with its “Quartz Intelligence Newsroom” publishing automated news pieces that cited AI-generated nonsense as sources and even disseminated demonstrably false information. The Inventory also regularly used AI to generate shopping content, including a disclaimer at the bottom of articles stating that the content “may contain inaccuracies generated by an AI engine.”
The Gizmodo Media Group union, representing G/O employees, issued a strongly worded statement about the sale and layoffs, calling G/O management’s act of “feeding Quartz AI garbage” before selling it a “new low” and expressing grief over the loss of many talented colleagues.
Quartz editor-in-chief Dan Hirschhorn vaguely stated in a release that this partnership with Redbrick marks a “new chapter” for Quartz, and that they will work together to “help shape the future of media.” Redbrick CEO Tobin Sodden emphasized “embracing innovative advancements,” but didn't explicitly address whether AI was among these “innovations.”
Quartz's downfall is not an isolated incident. In recent years, numerous media outlets, including Sports Illustrated, CNET, and The Village Voice, have suffered from decline through layoffs or sales. However, Quartz's case is more cautionary, clearly demonstrating that blindly pursuing low-cost, low-quality AI content not only fails to rescue struggling media but accelerates its demise, causing irreparable damage to journalistic quality and the media ecosystem.
