Journalism’s Future With AI

The new aspects of  Artificial Intelligence (AI) are changing the content creation across many different industries and the future of journalism and the aspects of human rights reporting are also changing. As nearly 50% of the world’s population will potentially be voting in general or local elections this year, the right to access credible and trustworthy information becomes even more profound.

While the latest technologies are powering digital journalism and social media outlets are a very convenient way for around the world to receive information, the disruptive power of AI must also be considered.

AI Engagement

AI’s potential to increase efficiency in news organisations is a central motivator for its adoption. Various examples demonstrate that efficiency and productivity gains have been achieved, including dynamic paywalls, automated transcription, and data analysis tools in news production.

It’s certainly possible that AI technologies can undermine journalism, as a public service and as a professional craft.

Between disinformation, job losses, inaccuracies, and biases, at this point the perceived dangers and negative impacts of AI systems known as large language models, seem to far outweigh any potential benefits to the industry.

But the greatest threat AI poses is that it will take over the creative process.

ChatGPT

Since the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022 the actual creative process of journalism is potentially compromised. And that’s a whole different story.

By now most people are familiar with ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), which has many capabilities, from answering questions and explaining complex topics to creating output such as social media posts, poetry, essays, and complete articles.

The responses generated by ChatGPT are based on the data it was trained on, so one of the biggest problems is the bias present during its learning. There are also concerns over false information it may produce and whether compensation should be awarded writers, artists, and musicians whose work was used (without permission) to train the AI models.
 
In November 2023, OpenAI introduced an updated version, GPT- 4 Turbo. Other companies have since developed their own models, such as X (formerly Twitter) TikTok and Grok AI. Platforms like Midjourney and Dall-E can generate images in a matter of seconds, including scenes that don’t exist.

Protected Aspects Of Journalism

Journalism is a valuable public service and has often been called the fourth pillar of democracy. But unlike journalists, AI can not go into the courtroom or interview a defendant behind bars, meet with the grieving parents of the latest school shooting victim, cultivate the trust of a whistleblower, or brave the frontlines of the latest war.

Furthermore, without access to human-created, high-quality content that is a relatively accurate portrayal of reality, and that journalism provides, the fundamental models that fuel machine learning and generative AI applications of all types will malfunction, putting the entire system at risk.

However, the rapid advances in AI are becoming yet another way for a handful of powerful tech corporations to extend and entrench their market positions. 

This will make it difficult, if not impossible, for sectors like journalism or the creative industries to remain independent, much less to maintain a public interest orientation as should be the case for the news industry.

Generative AI makes it even easier for people to intentionally spread misinformation through manipulated words, photos, video or audio, including content that may have no signs of alteration, appearing realistic and authentic.

To avoid using such content inadvertently, journalists should exercise the same caution and scepticism they would normally, including trying to identify the source of the original content, doing a reverse image search to help verify an image’s origin, and checking for reports with similar content from trusted media. However, it is reported that nearly 70% of newsroom staffers recruited for an Associated Press survey say they are already using generative AI to create content.

A Future With AI Journalism

If journalism embraces AI as a tool and invites this technology into the future of the practice, media outlets could begin to output stories that reassert themselves as trustworthy sources. Harnessing the power of AI in the production of journalism is also something that could separate these outlets from social media, which has become an increasingly popular medium for consumers to get their news.

For media organisations who see it as a complement rather than a replacement for humans, it can revive the waning areas of investigative and documentary journalism. Indeed, if employment levels in journalism are maintained, then AI can relieve human journalists of some of the dull routine of their work, releasing them to explore and report events in-depth and  from a truly human perspective.

Journalists and Writers Foundation     |     Columbia Journalism School     |     Brookings     |     Writer's Digest

Associated Press     |     Poynter     |     Research Gate     |     Al Jazeera     |     Baylor Loriat

Image: Philip Oroni

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