Kathy Zhang, the guild’s unit chair also said “They have left us no choice but to demonstrate the power of our labor on the picket line,”.
As a response, AG Sulzberger, New York Times publisher criticized the strike that also came only two days ahead of the US presidential elections “Hundreds of millions of people are depending on The Times’s journalism on Election Day and afterward, and it is troubling that the Tech Guild would try to block this public service at such a consequential moment for our country.”.
At this time, on X, Perplexity’s CEO offered its help to the New York Times, saying “Hey AG Sulzberger @nytimes sorry to see this. Perplexity is on standby to help ensure your essential coverage is available to all through the election. DM me anytime here.”.
However, the response received by the people from the social media platform X, was not a very good one, as the majority of them accused him of being a scab. This term stands for people who are willing to do the work of striking people, being considered disrespectful behavior when it comes to equity and labor. This act limits workers' chances of receiving their asked conditions, also limiting their power.
Even though Srinivasa might just have just wanted to offer its help in order for people to receive their information and updates on election day, his move was not seen positively.
Going further he replied to TechCrunch posts on X about the topic, saying that “the offer was *not* to ‘replace’ journalists or engineers with AI but to provide technical infra support on a high-traffic day.”
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