Ian Hamilton was fired as Editor in Chief of UploadVR this week after copying industry contacts on an internal email objecting to the publication's plans to deploy an AI bot for article generation.
Hamilton's specific concerns: the bot would compete with human writers for reader attention, lacked editorial safeguards, and threatened freelancer opportunities. He proposed three requirements before launch—brevity rules for bot content, a reader toggle to hide AI submissions, and human right of refusal on story assignments. None were addressed before the planned rollout.
When internal Slack discussions failed to shift direction, Hamilton escalated via email Wednesday morning. He was fired shortly after. "Unable to shift the direction of my colleagues and out of options," Hamilton wrote on his Substack, explaining the decision to go external.
The termination reflects standard corporate practice—one commenter noted that "taking the same action at anyplace I have ever worked would have resulted in a termination." Escalating internal disputes to outside contacts, regardless of merit, typically violates confidentiality protocols.
The broader context: VR media faces the same pressures hitting VR development. Cloudhead Games laid off 40 people (70% of staff) this month, citing "industry forces beyond our control." Studio head Denny Unger noted Valve's Steam Frame launch didn't materialize into expected partnerships. Cyan, creator of Myst, cut half its staff last year.
These workforce reductions create pressure on media properties to reduce costs—potentially making AI tools attractive to publishers facing similar headwinds. Hamilton's concern about reader experience and creator displacement remains unresolved. UploadVR has not publicly detailed implementation safeguards or how the bot system would operate.
The pattern is clear: the VR sector is contracting. Whether AI adoption in media accelerates or moderates that contraction depends on implementation details that publications aren't yet sharing.
Hamilton's exit frees up salary for new human writers, he notes. His final point: "The only thing that's real about VR is the people." We'll see if the industry agrees.