Just as mobile phones and Google have transformed journalistic labour, artificial intelligence seems destined to have the same impact. As AI develops with easier access to websites such as Chat GPT, the utilisation of this modern technology seems more convenient.
There are many positives and negatives when discussing the effects of AI on journalism. Some positives include helping to control bias in news media and reducing bias when interpreting data. It has also been argued that the introduction of AI is positive because it lessens the workload of humans without replacing journalists’ unique skills.In other words, AI is not yet replacing jobs. Negatives include the ethical questions surrounding AI, for example the ways in which readers are often oblivious to it.he current AI tools available also introduce the possibility of errors, plagiarism, and, for the lack of a better word, boring writing.
Many news organisations are transparent with their use of AI in their writing; publishing the guidelines they use which disclose that they only use it to assist their writing, and never without human approval and editing due to the unreliable nature of AI assistants. It can be used as an essential tool to support journalists, making processes more efficient – proof-reading tools on platforms as commonly used as Microsoft Word quicken the writing process massively, helping to improve the quality of the text. With the technology still not being fully flawless, it allows for humans to have priority for these tasks. As AI has access to such a vast amount of data (for reference, Chat GPT is trained on 570 gigabytes of text data, or about 300 billion words) it allows a lack of bias that is particularly valuable when writing usually opinionated news reports, for example about politics.
Following a major report in 2019 on the topic of ethical considerations when using AI, Professor Charlie Beckett concluded that trust, accuracy, accountability, and bias were among the major ethical issues surrounding AI. Beckett stated that it was unethical to deceive the reader if the content they are reading is entirely made by generative AI. However, news organisations also have a right to not tell their audiences when they have simply used AI to aid the production of a story. As stated above, limitations of AI include the occasional production of incorrect information, harmful instructions or biased content. The autocorrect tool, as previously mentioned, also comes with flaws as many of these autocorrect and editing features correct text using US English, which then lengthens the process when writing articles for British audiences. Research has also suggested that Chat GPT has limited knowledge of world events after 2021.
In conclusion, there are both positives and negatives when it comes to AI altering the traditional way journalism is written. Whether you think the developments are good or bad, there is no denying that this is the future.
