AI Journalism Bots and Their Impact on News Production
It has become a common practice to experiment with artificial intelligence in journalism, but is it appropriate to create content for publishing with its help? That is a tough question which requires thorough attention to all the details. What do the major news agencies say regarding journalism and AI? If AI is used for content generation, should the audience be informed about that? Can they trust the news if they are prepared not by a human newsmaker? Is embracing AI technologies in the workflow a benefit for the consumers of news content? Should the rules be restrictive or mild for newsrooms? There is a bundle of questions, but no specific answers yet.
AI and Media Makers: Global Tendencies
The global AI integration process has brought numerous changes in the approach of media makers and technologies they use to make their audience aware of all the events around the world. A continuous struggle of news media for public attention and trust makes them interested in using all new technologies not to fall behind. For sure, the scope of using AI in newsrooms is growing and it brings both threats and benefits which still require more attention and thorough analysis.
The Associated Press
The Associated Press guidelines on AI in journalism imply the principle of safety mixed with a certain amount of experimenting. The only acceptable function for AI can be performing menial tasks, such as compiling digests or linking stories together for a newsletter. Some reports on business earnings or short articles on sports achievements are written as an experiment to see if such kind of writing can imply sufficient credibility, but the news organization allows nothing more than that.
The Guardian
This is a British newspaper which denies the ideas of using AI tools in compiling their articles and posts. However, there is an exception related to artificial intelligence and journalism. They do allow editorial use of the AI still complimented with the human supervision and approval of the senior editor. Besides, journalists use technologies for the analysis of huge datasets and other technical time-consuming processes, different from creativity.
The Stuttgarter Zeitung
This newspaper is one of the AI pioneers in European media. Being trained through machine learning, AI can now comprehend police communiques from the headquarters of Stuttgart Police to sort information and update the CrimeMap every time when someone commits a crime.
Controversial Questions Raised on Ai and Journalism
- Is AI stealing the jobs from journalists?
Actually, it is not. For now or probably even for all times, it is a fact that a human journalist is always more intelligent than any artificial intelligence tool. AI does not work on the tasks of its own choice, people make the decisions. In general, it makes sense to delegate those tasks which are repetitive or boring, in particular:
- analysis of thousands of documents;
- filtering comments of the readers;
- tagging the comments that can be potentially harmful;
- transcribing discussions and interviews;
- compiling a standard report, for instance of annual financial earnings, etc.
- Is using artificial intelligence in media a must-have under present-day conditions?
Actually, no one can tell you that you SHOULD use AI in your work. If it can be helpful in figuring out the solution to a problem you need to solve and it is secure and easy, you can try using this tool. There are a lot of supporters of AI who claim that it can revolutionize any sphere, but your professionalism can be enough for quality media content.
- Is there a universal strategy of using AI in the work of a journalist?
First of all, you need to identify what exactly AI can do in your specific case. There is no single answer to the question on implementing AI in journalism. If your ultimate goal is to increase the number of subscribers, your strategy will be different from the one needed to analyze the readers’ comments.
- What are the ethical concerns related to AI journalism?
There are a number of ethics questions in terms of using private information and principles of developing AI algorithms. It is quite possible that news can become too personalized and biased in favor of those who pay money. Thus, online news-making platforms can disappoint the readers and make them lose faith in fair journalism.
AI in Media: 8 Ways Journalists Benefit from AI
- Increasing productivity
Undoubtedly, no human can have the computational capacities similar to those of technological advancements.
- Making fact-checking more accurate
AI can validate facts with a high degree of precision and do cross-checking to prevent providing false facts to the readers.
- Analyzing data
Technical tasks get much easier as it is possible to check facts and analyze data really fast and efficiently.
- Translating content
The global audience benefits from accessibility of articles in various languages.
- Tracking readers’ preferences
AI algorithms enable journalists to make news reports personalized. The search patterns and interests of particular target groups provide for customized news content.
- Creating particular content
For sure, using AI for writing articles is not appropriate, but generating headlines or summaries is a great idea.
- Real-time monitoring of activity in social media and worldwide events
Faster reporting leads to increasing the number of readers.
- Checking content for plagiarism
In line with PlagiarismSearch.com or other reliable plagiarism detection software, it is possible to use AI tools to make sure that all the published content is original.
Journalism is based on the human factor – it is the fundamental truth. Still, the use of ChatGPT and other chatbots can be really helpful in terms of saving time and effort. As all other efficient technological innovations, AI can be really supportive in work, but the thing is to remember that this is the industry driven by a mission, not only by thirst for profit. If people from technical, product, writing, and editorial departments cooperate and use AI in their work on projects, it is ok. What really matters is that effective journalism contributes to making the society better.
