In India, Sana and Lisa are renowned AI news anchors that have lived long enough on your television. Recently, Google unveiled AI news writer Genesis capable of harvesting current events and creating news stories raising eyebrows among top news publishers such as News Corp as well as Axel Springer amongst others. While this move scratched top publishers the wrong way, it reminds us of Mark Walter, a radio host in Georgia whose attempt to push these AI giants to the bar bore little hope!
The looming legal battle comes against the backdrop of a KPMG survey indicating that 43% of journalism tasks can be accomplished by artificial intelligence tools. Given the increased appetite by tech giants such as Google to make the most of Artificial Intelligence tools, authors, writers, and translators will soon be rendered jobless.
AI News Writers A Threat to Journalists?
Joey Levin, IAC CEO warned that Artificial intelligence taking over news media is more profound than the wild idea that it will take over the world. One of the glaring fears involves the OpenAI’s ChatGPT and AP deal which gives license to the news agency’s “text archive”. With these trends, newsrooms can only expect chaos due to the regulations and policy efforts. Top executives have expressed concerns over the Artificial Intelligence being a threat to the industry.
“I’ve never seen anything move from emerging issues to dominating so many workstreams in my time as CEO. We’ve had 15 meetings since February. Everyone is leaning in across all types of social media.” Digital Content CEO, Kint.
On his part, Jim VandeHei, Axios CEO stated that “Four months ago, I wasn’t thinking of or talking about AI. Now, it’s all we talk about, if you own a company and Artificial Intelligence isn’t something you’re obsessed about, you’re nuts.”
These are indicative of the reality of health challenges associated with Artificial Intelligence leading to binge drinking among top execs.
Nonetheless, the use of Artificial Intelligence seems to take for granted the efforts that news writers and publishers put into producing truthful content. The Top execs at the New York Times who had an opportunity to see the pitch of Genesis concluded that it “seemed to take for granted the effort that went into producing accurate and artful news stories”.
Publisher Response to Artificial Intelligence Use in Journalism
You probably remember Greek Mythology, Atlas who carried the heavens on his shoulder and concluded that the freedom of man must be sacrificed on the altar of survival! Demanding answers from Artificial Intelligence giants such as Google, OpenAI, and Midjourney is not a small task. No single publisher would put a finger on such an endeavor and reap noticeable success. With a proper understanding of the assignment before them, top international publishers are joining hands to file a lawsuit against the tech companies.
This comes after Biden secured a verbal commitment from the tech companies to act responsibly in their quest for Artificial Intelligence development. However, this seems to have less to do with the impact of these artificial intelligence tools on jobs.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time lawsuits and class actions have been pressed against Google and OpenAI. Recently, Sarah Silvermann and other two people sued Meta and OpenAI for infringing on their copyrights. On the other hand, allegations that Google stole data from millions of users to train Artificial Intelligence tools are still pending in court following a class action.
The actions of tech giants aren’t going unnoticed. They’ve become regular visitors in court corridors as they take jobs from employees and give them to robots. Earlier we only imagined content writers would walk dogs in the streets of New York. The unfolding reality is that no one is safe until we’re all safe. The joint efforts of top publishers are a source of hope for striking Hollywood workers and comedians whose data are used to train chatbots.
The next time you tune into your television and see Artificial Intelligence news anchor Sasya or Sana, remember you’re also looking at hundreds of jobless news writers, journalists, and translators.
