Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Timessaid this week that he would introduce an AI-generated “bias meter” alongside the paper’s opinion and reporting as part of a broader effort to give readers “both sides” of the story.

The surprise move came after he dropped the paper’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris and announced his intention to overhaul the paper Just’ The editorial board’s decision to include more conservative voices has led the paper’s union to publicly condemn Soon-Shiong and longtime columnist Harry Litman for their resignations.

Appearance on the podcast of right-wing CNN political commentator Scott Jennings, who joins in Just’ In the editorial, Soon-Shiong said he had “secretly” set up the so-called bias meter behind the scenes. The biotech entrepreneur claimed it would hit the market next month and said it uses the same artificial intelligence technology he has been developing for years in his other companies.

“Someone reading it might understand that the source of the article has some degree of bias,” Soon-Shiong continued. “And what we need to do is not have what we call confirmation bias, and then have that story automatically – the reader can press a button and see both sides of the same story based on that story and then make comments.”

Soon-Shiong’s comments immediately sparked an immediate rebuke from the party LA Times’ Union representing hundreds of journalists and newsroom staff.

“Recently, the owner of the newspaper publicly suggested that his employees were biased without providing any evidence or examples,” said a statement from the council and the guild’s negotiating committee. “The statements came after the owner blocked the newspaper’s editorial board from endorsing the president and then wrongly blamed editorial staff for his decision.”

The guild added that it has “ensured strong ethical protections for our members, including the right to withhold one’s byline, and we will vigorously guard against any attempt to unlawfully or unfairly alter our coverage.”

Litman, who had written for Just On Thursday, he announced that he had submitted his resignation as a “protest and strong reaction” to Soon-Shiong’s behavior as owner.

“Soon-Shiong has taken several steps to force the newspaper to adopt a stance more sympathetic to Donald Trump, despite the strenuous objections of his staff,” he wrote in a Substack post on Thursday. “These steps cannot be defended since the nature of political adjustment papers are carried out from time to time and an owner has the right to influence within certain limits.”

After Trump’s victory, Soon-Shiong told CNN last month that he planned to “balance” the paper’s editorial board with more conservative and centrist voices, complaining that it had “drifted very leftward” in recent years. After the owner’s polarizing decision to block the JustDue to Harris’ support, which resulted in thousands of readers canceling their subscriptions, the board was reduced to just three members due to multiple resignations.

Besides Litman and that LAT Guild, about a dozen current and former Just Employees told media reporter Oliver Darcy that they felt “demoralized” by Soon-Shiong’s brutal “interference” in the newsroom. “The man who was supposed to be our savior has become the biggest internal threat to the newspaper,” one employee said.

Additionally, Darcy explained why the paper’s morale has plummeted in recent months — and a big part of that hinged on the owner’s apparent embrace of Trump and MAGA in public, which she says he’s now trying to force the paper to reflect on to force.

“There definitely is a lot Reason for concern. Soon-Shiong, who once portrayed himself as a Black Lives Matter vaccine advocate, has transformed into a fan of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Jennings,” Darcy noted. “Since Trump’s victory in November, Soon-Shiong has reached out to X to criticize the news media, praise Trump’s Cabinet picks and appeal to a MAGA audience. The change in behavior has puzzled his journalists, who are wondering what happened to Soon-Shiong, whose newspaper has enforced strict Covid restrictions and emphasized its support for social justice.”

The Independent has reached out to a Los Angeles Times Speaker for comment.