Google starts to pitch new stories to its publishers. It is testing a new AI technology known as Genesis to write news stories from data that includes current events. It would not replace journalists’ ability to write news. It is just there to assist them so that they can focus more on urgent news. The issue is how using AI for this type of work will impact things.
Will using AI in this industry reduce fake news? Will it improve trust in news organizations? After all, news that uncovers the truth is crucial. It is the source to inform people of what is really going on and to connect the dots. It helps them prepare and make decisions for themselves, their family, children, and pets about the current situation and what is to come.
Yet, it is hard to trust the news. Fake news has been going around, which makes things worse. It keeps people in the dark about what is really going on. It influences the perception and behavior of prominent figures and some news media that are telling the truth. It creates mistrust, confusion, and misjudgment of the events or situations. It also devalues the truth and increases suspicion.
A recent survey showed that Americans’ trust in the media is low. Half of them believe that the reporting of the news is misleading or persuading them to adopt a political view of the news organizations. This is similar to the idea of using AI to write news articles. Another survey showed that the majority of Americans do not think it is good to have news content written by AI, and I agree with them.
The possibility of the impact of the news media falls into the hands of artificial intelligence. That is, if the new AI products have similar problems as Google Bard and other AI chatbots. Google Bard has been having problems with misinformation and hallucinations. It takes sides in a controversy rather than just providing factual evidence. Its view leans toward far-left ideology, which does not seem so convincing that news articles written by AI will reduce fake news or improve reliable sources. Especially when those articles are not verified by humans, it could do more harm than good, just like the ChatGPT that produced six fake cases.
In conclusion, artificial intelligence changes the landscape of journalism as well as many other industries. It also influences our perception and behavior the events and prominent figures. That is why these articles need to be verified by human journalists who provide news and strive to ensure the free exchange of truth and facts in case of any error or half-truth information in the post-truth era. In addition, check various reliable sources for verification is not a bad idea.
Image: I use Photoshop to create the feature image.
Sources:
Google’s rumored ‘Genesis’ AI tool for journalists could probably write this article
78 percent say AI-written news articles would be a bad thing: survey
