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How AI is replacing journalists

By Roz Morris, Managing Director TV News London Ltd

It seems amazing to think that we are now nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century and the enormous social changes we are all facing through the growth of AI are only just beginning.

AI threatens jobs throughout the creative industries and in the media the examples of journalists being replaced by algorithms are increasing every day.

This isn’t always successful as the recent row between the BBC and Apple has illustrated.

Following pressure from the BBC, which first complained in December last year, Apple has finally withdrawn the use of an algorithm which summarised BBC news stories inaccurately. In fact, to coin a phrase, it was creating fake news and spreading dangerous untruths under the BBC’s name.

However, this hasn’t stopped the trend of other organisations replacing journalists with AI. ‘Money wins’, as Logan Roy succinctly puts it in the TV series ‘Succession’.  So, replacing human journalist has been going on for some time with reporting sports results and stock market results, but now business news is joining in.

Quartz, the international business news outlet, is using AI to pull together reports from other outlets, to create and publish AI-generated articles under the byline “Quartz Intelligence Newsroom.”  

Where will news organisations draw a line between using algorithms and human reporters? 

This is a battlefield being fought over right now and no doubt well into the future.

Currently AI has some limitations and can’t always summarise news stories accurately. But it is improving all the time and there are obvious signs that in future it will be able to capture nuance and avoid the factual mistakes which led to the row between the BBC and Apple.

Meanwhile a recent report from researchers at Fudan University in China stated that ‘rogue’ AI will be a problem in future. They reported that an advanced AI system has crossed a “red line” after successfully replicating itself without any human assistance.

They added that this development is an early sign of the emergence of rogue AI, which may eventually operate against the best interests of humanity. This has been noted by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology which is looking at introducing new legislation to regulate companies developing AI tools.

But will they do this fast enough to have any effect? And will there be any journalists left to report on this?

TV News London briefs our clients on up to the minute media developments. We can help you to get your messages to cut through in the current massive media landscape.

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Read ‘The Visual Revolution Guidebook’ by Roz Morris