AI and Journalism

"People will not be able to tell the difference between an article written by AI or by a person." Steffen Kühne

Until the recent media explosion surrounding the language model ChatGPT in the latter months of 2022, discussion of artificial intelligence and journalism was confined to research papers, not headlines.

That is until it was reported by The Financial Times that The Daily Mail are looking into using AI language models, such as ChatGPT, to help write local news for them.

Is AI a viable option for news writing?

Some news organisations have been working tirelessly, for years, to find a place for AI within their day to day operations.

Steffen Kühne is the Technology Lead at German public service radio and television broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, based in Munich. His role is to develop systems that will build the infastructure for AI to be effective in the journalism of tomorrow.

According to Mr Kühne, language models that allow the instant writing of news content have already been developed.

He said: "AI already has the capacity to write articles for you. We have been able to develop software that has written match reports on basketball games with full statistical analysis because we have given it the capabilities to do so."

He did however warn that the articles could not be published without human supervision, to ensure accuracy.

Despite being passionate about the future importance of AI in the industry, Mr Kühne has concerns that in their current form, language models may lead to an increased output of articles that require less skill to create.

Bayerischer Rundfunk's tech lead said: "One concern I do have is that we will see an increase in click-bait, lower quality journalism, because articles like this are so easy to write with AI."

"We may see regional papers that have low budgets cutting corners and using AI to write these types of articles because it is cheaper".

A cheaper alternative?

As the data below shows, the amount of local news organisations closing in the UK rapidly increased from 2012 to 2020, with their budgets falling 70% in this same time period.

Local news is a financially insecure industry, and it is the opinion of Mr Kühne that organisations may eventually turn to AI to write their news for them, rather than spending on the labour of copywriters.

Felix Simon is a research assistant for Reuters and a Leverhulme Scholar at the Oxford Institute in the University of Oxford, who has been researching the relationship between AI, journalism and misinformation for over three years.

It is his belief that AI will not revolutionise journalism in the way that many have claimed, but that is far from a 2023 fad.

He warned: "Yes, AI does interesting things, but they're not magic.

"Factual accuracy isn't their strong suit and they are very prone to hallucinations where they make up things. AI may be able to write copy completely on its own in theory, but it would be riddled with errors and completely worthless. "

Despite shutting down the myth that AI is going to cause a misinformation Armageddon, the University of Oxford researcher explained the potential benefits of AI to the industry.

AI can already be used for information gathering, image cropping, comment moderation and to analyse user preference - systems that are already in use by the New York times.

He also said that at some stage AI may be used in the co-production of articles. To help the journalist, not to replace them.

It may not be the case that artificial intelligence takes over the industry and lowers its standards, but that it helps to create a more efficient newsgathering and writing process for all journalists.

Charlie Beckett is a former BBC and Channel 4 programme editor, as well as a Media and Communications professor at the London School of Economics. At LSE, he is the leader of their brand new Journalism AI project.

He helps to produce training for journalists which include the JournalismAI Starter Pack and two online courses on machine learning for journalists.

In 2021, LSE also hosted the first-ever JournalismAI Academy for Small Newsrooms, a programme to help newsrooms understand the power of artificial intelligence.

The LSE professor emphasised that artificial intelligence is not something to be feared, but for journalists to take advantage of in their newsrooms.

How can artificial intelligence be used to help journalists?

Why are people afraid of artificial intelligence in Journalism?

How can artificial intelligence be used to dispel misinformation?

"A Hammer can be used to kill someone or to build a house, so should we keep all hammers away under lock and key?"

Currently, the public clearly do not trust artificial intelligence. If news organisations, like The Daily Mail, are going to use AI language models in their daily practice for newswriting, they will have to convince the public that the stigma surrounding models like ChatGPT is misleading and that they will use it responsibly.

The focus, as the experts above have emphasised, should move away from the fear of ChatGPT and towards an attitude of acceptance to systems that can improve the efficiency of an entire industry.

After all, the Church of England attempted to have paper mills banned in the nineteenth century.

The reason? Fear.

Look how that turned out, journalists.