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CEO of AI research company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, offered to cross picket lines and provide services to mitigate the impact of a tech workers’ strike in the New York Times.
the NYT Tech Guild She announced her strike on Mondayafter setting November 4th as a deadline months ago. Acting workers provide programming support and data analysis for The Times, on the business side of the outlet. They called for a 2.5% annual pay increase and a boost to existing expectations in the office of two days a week, among other things.
“But the company has decided that our members are not worthy enough to agree to a fair contract and stop committing unfair labor practices,” the union said. Written on X.
“They left us no choice but to show the strength of our work on the picket line,” Cathy Chang, the organization’s unit chief, said in a statement.
New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger criticized the strike two days before the US presidential election, saying in a statement: “Hundreds of millions of people depend on Times journalism on Election Day and beyond, and it is troubling that a technology union will attempt to block this public service in the future.” Such an important moment for our country.”
Protesters demonstrated in front of the New York Times building in New York as negotiations continued. Meanwhile, on X, formerly known as Twitter, Perplexity’s CEO offered to intervene on behalf of striking workers.
In response to Semaphore Media Editor Max Tani, quoted by Publisher Srinivas books: “Hey AJ Sulzberger @nytimes, sorry to see this. Perplexity stands ready to help ensure everyone has access to essential coverage during the election. DM me anytime here.”
Many at X immediately criticized Srinivas for being a scab – a derogatory term for people willing to do the jobs of striking workers. It is widely considered disreputable behavior in matters of employment and equality. By undermining collective action, wounds limit workers’ ability to bargain with those in positions of power.
Perhaps Srinivas is simply trying to make sure people have the information they need on Election Day. The company recently unveiled its election information hub and map. But offering its services explicitly as an alternative to striking workers was bound to be an unpopular move.
Although TechCrunch asked Perplexity for comment on the matter, Srinivas He responded to a TechCrunch post on It’s really clear what services other than AI tools Perplexity can offer, or why they don’t amount to replacing the workers in question (however, in response to clarification, we chose to change the title to reflect the claim that this offering was not necessarily specific to AI services .)
NYT and Perplexity are not on the best terms at the moment. The Times sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter in October about the startup collecting articles for use in its AI models. In a conversation last week with TechCrunch, the usually outspoken CEO declined to define “intellectual theft.”
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