How AI 'revolution' is shaking up journalism /
The News / 19 March 2023
Extract :
Journalists had fun last year asking
the shiny new artificial intelligence
(AI) chatbot ChatGPT to
write their columns, most concluding that the bot was not good enough to take
their jobs. Yet.
But many commentators believe journalism is on the cusp of a revolution where mastery of algorithms and AI tools that generate
content will be a key battleground.
The technology
news site CNET perhaps heralded the way forward when it
quietly deployed an AI program last year to write some of its listicles
It was later forced to issue
several corrections after another news site noticed that the bot had made
mistakes, some of them serious.
But CNET's parent company later
announced job cuts that included editorial staff — though executives denied AI was behind the layoffs.
The German publishing
behemoth Axel Springer, owner of Politico and
German tabloid Bild among other titles, has been less coy.
"[AI]has the potential to
make independent journalism better than it ever was — or simply replace
it," the group's boss Mathias Doepfner told staff last month.
Hailing bots like ChatGPT as a
"revolution" for the industry, he announced a restructuring that
would see "significant reductions" in production and proofreading.
Both companies are pushing AI as a
tool to support journalists and can point to recent developments in the
industry.
Glorified word processor
For the past decade, media
organisations have been increasingly using automation for
routine work like searching for patterns in economic data or reporting on company results.
Outlets with an online presence
have obsessed over "search engine optimisation or SEO", which involves
using keywords in a headline to get favoured by Google or Facebook algorithms
and get a story seen by the most eyeballs.
And some have developed their own
algorithms to see which stories play best with their audiences and allow them
to better target content and advertising — the same tools that turned Google
and Facebook into global juggernauts.
Alex Connock, an author of
"Media Management and Artificial Intelligence", says that mastery of
these AI tools will help decide which media companies survive and which ones
fail in the coming years.
And the use of content creation tools
will see some people lose their jobs, he said, but not in the realms of analytical or
high-end reporting.
"In the specific case of the
more mechanistic end of journalism — sports reports, financial results — I do think that
AI tools are replacing, and likely increasingly to replace human
delivery," he said.
Not all analysts agree on that
point.
Mike Wooldridge of Oxford
University reckons ChatGPT, for example, is more like a "glorified word
processor" and journalists should not be worried.
"This technology will replace
journalists in the same way that spreadsheets replaced mathematicians — in
other words, I don't think it will," he told a recent event held by the
Science Media Centre.
He nonetheless suggested that
mundane tasks could be replaced — putting him on the same page as Connock.
Test the robots
French journalists Jean Rognetta
and Maurice de Rambuteau are digging further into the question of how ready AI
is to take over from journalists.
They publish a newsletter called
"Qant" written and illustrated using AI tools.
Last month, they showed off a 250-page report written by AI detailing the main trends of
the CES technology show in Las Vegas.
Rognetta said they wanted to "test
the robots, to push them to the limit".
They quickly found the limit.
The AI struggled to identify the
main trends at CES and could not produce a summary worthy of a journalist. It
also pilfered wholesale from Wikipedia.
The authors found that they needed
to intervene constantly to keep the process on track, so while the programs
helped save some time, they were not yet fit to replace
real journalists.
Journalists are "afflicted
with the syndrome of the great technological replacement, but I don't believe
in it", Rognetta said.
"The
robots alone are just not capable of producing articles. There is still a part
of journalistic work that cannot be delegated."
MY TAKE :
Ø Revenge
of the AI ? ………………………………………. 29 Sept
2016
Extract :
Hindustan Times ( 30 Sept 2016
) carries following news report :
Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and
Microsoft on one AI platform
In a major
boost to artificial
intelligence (AI) research, five top-notch tech
companies
-- Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft -- have joined
hands
to announce a historic partnership on AI and machine learning.
It means
that these companies will discuss advancements and conduct research
in
AI and how to develop best products and services powered by machine
learning,
Tech Crunch reported on Thursday.
Initial
financial help will come from these companies and as other stakeholders
join
the group, the finances are expected to increase.
“We want
to involve people impacted by AI as well,” Mustafa Suleyman, co-
founder
and head of applied AI at DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet (parent
company of
Google), was quoted as saying.
According
to the report, the organisational structure has been designed to allow
non-corporate
groups to have equal leadership side-by-side with large tech
companies.
“The power
of AI is in the enterprise sector. For society at-large to get the
benefits
of AI, we first have to trust it,” Francesca Rossi, AI ethics researcher at
IBM
Research, told Tech Crunch.
AI-powered bots will become the next interface, shaping our interactions with
the
applications and devices we rely on and Microsoft’s latest solutions are set
to
change the way HP interacts with its customers and partners, Microsoft’s
Indian-born
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said recently.
At
Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in August, Nadella had said that AI-
powered
chatbots will “fundamentally revolutionise how computing is
experienced
by everybody.”
By " burying " this news on
page 17 , in 10 CC ( column centimeter ), it was
as if the Hindustan Times Editor was saying :
" Ignore this - it is of
little consequence ! "
Now , fast forward to year 2026
In Hindustan Times's office , you
won't find ,
* Watchman / Receptionist / Reporters / Journalists / Composers / Graphic
Designers / Editors / Operators etc
All will be replaced by AI Robots , embedded into Computers /
Cameras /
Printing Machines / Delivery
Drones !
And those AI Robots
would select / print news such as this , in large , bold
headlines on the
Front Page !
I only hope , AI of 2026 remains devoid of human frailties
of jealousy / anger
/ revenge !
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.hemenparekh.ai / 26
Mar 2023
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