Journalism requires the collection of facts and data to be turned into readable narratives. Several major publications are starting to use artificial intelligence for writing content. Bloomberg, one of the forerunners of automating the financial industry, is also one of the first adopters of automated content. Their program takes data from financial reports and turns them into business news articles. Similarly, Forbes uses a program to write first drafts for their news stories.
As with any industries that AI has the potential to disrupt, journalists are concerned about the security of their jobs. However, the media outlets say that AI is there to assist them in high-level work, not to replace them. Another concern is that the AI-produced work may discredit the reliability of media outlets they work for by producing lower-quality content. However, it should not be much of a concern as the journalists should have freed up time to focus on the quality of content.
Read the full article on Forbes: Did A Robot Write This? How AI Is Impacting Journalism
Analysis:
The traditional media industry has gone through tough times as digital media came into the picture. Physical publications and newspapers found themselves becoming obsolete when more digital publications became the norm and were mostly free. Many media outlets had to undergo manpower reductions and change of business strategies to stay afloat.
The introduction of AI as a tool in the newsroom seem to be more beneficial for the future of journalists. AI helps them churn out more articles than they could possibly do on their own, and takes over routine tasks such as video transcriptions. With more free time, they can diversify their content and also spend time uncovering stories that involve human relations.
Furthermore, human oversight of the automated content is still required in the contingency events that the machines are not prepared to handle without prior programming, such as the cancellation of a football match and its reasons. AI can thus be viewed as a helpful tool in journalism, rather than a threat.
Questions for further personal evaluation:
- Would you, as a reader, want to know if a piece of article was produced by a machine? How would your perception of the article change?
- How do you think journalists can adapt in terms of skills to integrate AI into their work?
Useful vocabulary:
- ‘skeptical’: not easily convinced; having doubts or reservations
- ‘discredit’: harm the good reputation of
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