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Macmillan Publishers' AI assistant NOA discontinued after poor reception

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

Macmillan Publishers launched an AI assistant named NOA with a celebratory event, but employees found it unhelpful and offensive. Despite assurances of data privacy, staff were instructed to limit manuscript content fed into the tool and to fact-check its outputs. The AI assistant was eventually discontinued, and Macmillan is now exploring the integration of Google Gemini, though initial attempts to use it for evaluating submissions proved unsuccessful. AI

IMPACT This case highlights the challenges and potential pitfalls of integrating AI tools into traditional workflows, particularly concerning employee reception and actual utility.

RANK_REASON The cluster describes the rollout and subsequent discontinuation of a workplace AI tool, not a core AI model release or research.

Read on Wired — AI →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Macmillan Publishers' AI assistant NOA discontinued after poor reception

How we ranked this

Signal score
20 / 100
Composite score across the factors below. Higher = stronger signal that this story matters right now.
Newsworthiness bucket
Tool
The cluster describes the rollout and subsequent discontinuation of a workplace AI tool, not a core AI model release or research.
Source corroboration
Single-source cluster
Only one publisher covered this so far. Single-source stories can still rank when the publisher is high-authority, but they lack cross-source corroboration.
Topics
product, other
Editorial topic classification. Feeds into how the story surfaces on /topic/<slug> hub pages and into the per-entity coverage mix.
AI-industry relevance
Standard
On-topic for AI-industry coverage; kept in the public index.
Story freshness
Breaking (< 6h)
Fresh story with cross-source coverage still developing. Ranking may shift as more sources report.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [1]

  1. Wired — AI TIER_1 English(EN) · Adam Morgan ·

    Macmillan Staff Say the Publisher Threw a Party for a Workplace AI Assistant That Was Later Killed

    Workers tell WIRED that NOA—or “No Ordinary Assistant”—was unhelpful. Bestselling authors also say AI is ruining their relationships with Big Five publishers.

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