In January 2023, buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced in a memo to staff that the company was making a serious pivot toward AI, years before the word “slop” was added to the public lexicon.
Peretti said in a memo published about two months after OpenAI announced its breakthrough ChatGPT chatbot. buzzfeed plans to use the software to enhance the company’s infamous quizzes by generating personalized answers.
The company’s stock price rose aggressively from about $3 per share to over $15 per share. But in the long run, neither insiders nor the general public felt particularly compelled to make this move. Peretti nonetheless doubled down, pledging to “replace the majority of static content” on the site with AI in May 2023, just a month after the Pulitzer Prize-winning site was shut down. buzzfeed news Split.
Reality set in quickly. The AI quizzes were overwhelming, and the site was quickly caught publishing entire articles generated by AI that were sloppy and repetitive. After an initial surge of enthusiasm, the company’s stock price fell sharply. As of this week, the company’s stock price has been hovering around 70 cents.
Three years into the transition to AI, the conclusions are on the wall. In its earnings report Thursday, the company reported a 2025 net loss of $57.3 million. In a public statement, the company glumly hinted at the possibility of bankruptcy sooner or later, writing that “the company’s ability to continue as a going concern is in serious doubt.”
Matt Omer, the company’s chief financial officer, confirmed that the company is having “strategic conversations” about easing liquidity issues.
“Three years ago, we had more than $180 million in debt and we have reduced that by more than 65 percent,” he said. “Although we have significantly reduced our operating costs and real estate burden, we still face legacy contracts that are burdening our business.”
But even after a brutal reality check, Peretti doesn’t seem to be stopping his pursuit of AI. He now says he hopes to “bring new AI apps to market” this year.
Buzzfeed details: BuzzFeed isn’t just publishing quizzes, it’s also secretly publishing entire AI-generated articles
