Social pinboard platform Pinterest plans to lay off "less than 15%" in a pivot to artificial intelligence, CNBC reported.
What's happening?
On Jan. 27, Pinterest — a publicly traded company — filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Publicly held companies are required to file the form within four days of any event or internal move that could impact shareholders.
Pinterest disclosed a global restructuring plan on Jan. 26. It's expected to "affect less than 15% of the Company's workforce" and Pinterest's office space footprint.
In the filing, Pinterest cited three "transformation initiatives" as motivation, two of which were related to internal AI initiatives.
According to CNBC, Pinterest's last staff headcount from a public filing in April suggested it employed "more than 4,500 employees globally," meaning close to 700 jobs were in jeopardy.
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Why is Pinterest's AI shift concerning?
Among social media apps, Pinterest is unique in large part because it's a visual platform, with little text-based content or user discussion.
AI has been creeping across the internet in recent years, and Pinterest hasn't been spared its omnipresence. Tantalizing images of never-cooked recipes and impossible interiors have been flooding the app.
Back in March, ZDNet opined that Pinterest was being "ruined" by an "abundance of AI slop." It's a particularly disruptive problem on a platform dominated by imagery. Reddit users complained about an AI uptick as early as October 2024 and continue to do so regularly.
More broadly, the general public's view of AI has become far less positive in recent months for myriad reasons. Mass layoffs have been blamed on AI. Scores of job seekers have said the technology has made it impossible to connect with potential employers.
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$200 or more 💰 Even those in seemingly "safe" industries haven't been immune to the impact of widespread AI adoption. Data center demand has driven double-digit increases in electric bills nationally. The U.S. Department of Energy warned that the public grid wasn't up to the task of powering them.
Pinterest users, already "alienated" by "AI slop" across the platform, were dejected by the news. An r/Pinterest user shared a link to the CNBC article and lamented the change.
"Buckle up for even more unwanted features and AI slop," they wrote.
"People were using pinterest to find REALISTIC inspirations," another user replied, alluding to a flood of altered images and videos on Pinterest.
What's being done about it?
Perplexingly, Pinterest gave users some control over the level of AI content overtaking their feeds in October, per TechCrunch, suggesting the company was aware of user discontent.
As for individual users, many asserted they planned to leave or have already abandoned Pinterest.
"I gave up on it months ago after my last unfair suspension," one griped.
"So prepare for the app to be completely not functional anymore got it," another quipped.
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