United States: The tech giant Google has revealed that it’s currently exploring artificial intelligence tools for writing news articles to help journalists.
The spokesperson of the company has observed that Google is working with media outlets, particularly small publishers, to provide AI-powered tools to assist journalists with “options for headlines or different writing styles.”
According to the Google spokesperson, the AI tools under consideration have the potential to offer journalists suggestions for headlines and different writing styles. These advancements aim to enhance their work and productivity. However, the spokesperson clarified that Google is currently only in the initial stages of exploring these ideas.
The development is likely to fuel a growing debate about the risks and benefits of AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, which has stunned users with its ability to mimic human speech but raised concerns about copyright infringement, misinformation, and the replacement of human workers, as per the statement.
The global media industry has suffered severe blows, experiencing successive rounds of layoffs due to a sharp decline in print advertising revenues. In the first five months of 2023, US newsrooms, in particular, have been hit hard, with a staggering record of 17,436 jobs lost. After some media portals have begun to use AI, newsrooms have been generally slow to embrace the technology for newsgathering purposes amid concerns about accuracy, plagiarism, and copyright.
The Associated Press has recently announced its collaboration with OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, to explore the application of generative AI in news. This partnership has the potential to establish a precedent for similar alliances between the news and AI industries.