{"id":142963,"date":"2023-04-26T09:22:16","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T08:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=142963"},"modified":"2023-04-26T09:22:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T08:22:16","slug":"the-impact-of-ai-generated-content-on-journalism-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/the-impact-of-ai-generated-content-on-journalism-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"The impact of AI-generated content on journalism so far"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK media industry is generating plenty of think pieces on the potential impacts of artificial intelligence<\/a> and news on the changes it is already making. Going beyond the headlines, how concerned are journalists in reality about AI when it comes to their own work? Will the adoption of technologies like ChatGPT and Bard ultimately be a positive or negative innovation for journalism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Journalist Voices by Vuelio panel considering the implications of AI included Press Gazette associate editor and New Statesman media correspondent William Turvill, Helena Pozniak, an independent journalist writing for the Telegraph, The Guardian, the Institute of Engineering and Technology and more, and freelance writer Amelia Tait, who contributes to outlets including The Guardian, The New York Times, Wired, the New Statesman, and VICE.<\/p>\n

Already affected in their work by AI, the panellists discussed the possible problem areas ahead alongside the opportunities, as well as what PRs need to know about AI assistance in the creative industries.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still early days for AI<\/h2>\n

As pointed out by William, even ChatGPT and Bard would admit that their technology is not 100% reliable and fool-proof just yet, and each of the panellists had examples of AI going wrong.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was pitching an article, and I used ChatGPT for fact finding,\u2019 shared Helena, who regularly writes about the impact of technology on society \u2013 \u2018clean energy, to freedom of information, smart motorways to the environment\u2019. The accuracy of information and reliability of sources is of utmost importance in her work – how did the AI app perform?<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m so glad I double-checked the information it offered, because it had completely fabricated a massive landslide that killed thousands that never happened. So, I\u2019m very wary and just playing around with it at the moment.\u2019<\/p>\n

William, who reports on the inner workings of the media itself, pointed out problems with bias already creeping into AI:<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve messed around with it. I asked it to provide a summary of the day\u2019s news for me, and it wasn\u2019t too good. When asked which UK news sources I could trust, it was very pro The Guardian and the BBC, but told me I couldn\u2019t trust the Mail, the Mirror or The Sun. But I feel there is potential there\u2019.<\/p>\n

For Amelia, its use as an alternative to Thesaurus.com when searching for the right word came with feelings of uncertainty \u2013<\/p>\n

\u2018I asked ChatGPT to rework a sentence for me; I ultimately didn\u2019t use what it suggested. It opened my mind a little more, but I felt a little bit dirty. I didn\u2019t know what the ethics were on it\u2019.<\/p>\n

Helena offered that AI can already provide assistance on some elements of research for journalists \u2013 \u2018It can summarise a research paper brilliantly and can do a lot of background research.\u2019<\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t so great \u2013 the writing itself:<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s just so bland. The copy AI apps come out with is so dire\u2019.<\/p>\n

Understanding the difference between content and journalism<\/h2>\n

\u2018I would distinguish between what is journalism and what is content,\u2019 said Amelia.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve worked for websites where you\u2019re churning out content, and for that kind of thing, companies that aren\u2019t investing much in talent could start using AI. And that comes with dangers on misinformation.\u2019<\/p>\n

That many journalists \u2013 and PRs \u2013 start their careers with duties that could be automated in future was a concern William spoke about:<\/p>\n

\u2018It could be challenging for media companies that produce \u2018clickbait\u2019, or repurpose information from other sources. Those jobs are definitely at risk.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Many journos don\u2019t want to be doing that anyway, but there\u2019s a danger of cutting off the entry level jobs into journalism; those jobs you have to do to find your bearings as a journalist. I would be concerned as someone entering the industry now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m sure it\u2019s the same in PR – when you start out, you\u2019re doing the unglamorous jobs. When doing work experience, I was walking a dog every day. AI couldn\u2019t do that, but it could do the background research for a law firm. The \u2018bottom rung\u2019 could be in a difficult position\u2019.<\/p>\n

For Helena, the negatives would also reach audiences: \u2018There might be a diminishing desire for longreads. You can see it on websites already with short-form summaries at the top. When time-pressed, are people really going to read something you\u2019ve slaved over for days?\u2019<\/p>\n

Quality journalism requires human journalists (and journalists need human sources)<\/h2>\n

While coverage of AI can come with fearmongering, it is already embedded in parts of the journalist job successfully \u2013 as pointed out by Amelia, journalists regularly use AI transcription services for interviews, cutting hours out of the work of a writer:<\/p>\n

\u2018We need to perceive these things as tools that we\u2019ll use, that can help us rather than replace us.<\/p>\n

I could waste ten minutes thinking of a particular word, and that\u2019s not a skill or talent, that\u2019s just time consuming. Using AI as a tool, that\u2019s really encouraging and exciting\u2019.<\/p>\n

William underlined the importance of the human aspect of journalism. Ultimately, journalism has a human audience interested in human stories, and who better to share that than fellow humans (with assistance from AI on the admin side):<\/p>\n

\u2018This has really solidified for me which journalism is going to be important in future as AI takes on some of the more basic writing and research \u2013 the journalism that journalists are going to want to do is original journalism. We will be looking for more personalisation, more research, more insightful interviews from PRs and a lot of thought going into pitches.<\/p>\n

Something I\u2019ve really been thinking about is stories I should be writing, I\u2019ve set myself a test \u2013 could an AI do this research, if not now in five years. Is this useful? We\u2019ll be looking for original stuff and any help with that is always appreciated.\u2019<\/p>\n

For more on how the media industry is covering AI, read our Vuelio Insights<\/a> Report \u2018Media attitudes to AI journalism<\/a>\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Want to connect with human journalists with stories of interest to their human readers? Check out how you can help them with sourcing experts, spokespeople, case studies and data via the Journalist Enquiry Service<\/a> and find journalists covering your specialist topics on the Vuelio Media Database<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will the adoption of technologies like ChatGPT and Bard ultimately be a positive or negative innovation for journalism? Our Voices by Vuelio panel of journalists including William Turvill, Helena Pozniak and Amelia Tait shared their thoughts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":142962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272,3725,3729],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142963"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142970,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142963\/revisions\/142970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}