Journalists have had to adapt to technological change many times over the decades and generations. From the invention of the telegraph to the advent of radio and television to the ongoing transition from newspapers to digital sites and social media, the newest challenge — artificial intelligence — joins a long list of previous disruptions.
Worries about emerging technologies destroying journalism have long been a feature of the history of the industry and profession. But so has adapting to change. While many questions remain about potential impacts and pitfalls of AI-assisted journalism, news organizations such as The Guardian, The New York Times, the BBC and numerous others around the world have been adopting AI tools to help gather news, package content and reach audiences.
Here are 10 ways journalists have embraced the use of AI in the newsroom.
- Transcribing interviews: Otter.ai is not new to journalists. Created in 2016, the interview transcription tool has become standard equipment for many newsroom employees and freelancers alike. It saves plenty of time and typing energy, but requires careful vetting to ensure machine-translated speech precisely matches what sources said.
- Creating multiple versions of content for different platforms: News organizations are leveraging AI’s speed and ever-advancing capabilities to repackage content and produce teasers for multiple distribution channels, such as Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram and other pathways to audiences.
- Generate suggested headlines and story ideas: ChatGPT has been an easy platform for journalists to use to find potential stories and produce possible headlines for articles with strong search-engine optimization.
- Create charts and graphics: Journalists are able to input their data and findings into AI platforms to have charts and graphics created faster and easier. Forbes Magazine has said that it makes “data-driven storytelling more accessible.”
- Translating news articles: In May 2022, the Finnish broadcaster Yle, found that they could not reach a target audience in the country, Ukrainians. Finding a Finnish journalist who spoke Ukrainian was difficult. As a solution, they used AI and were able to reach Ukrainian audiences.
- Speeding up reportage: Although ChatGPT can’t be at the scene of a natural disaster or tragic crash, feeding an AI tool notes with observation and information can help journalists get their work out faster. One of the world’s oldest newspapers, Berrow’s Worcester Journal, has begun to use AI for this. For journalists, getting a story out as fast as possible is the goal and ChatGPT is able to help make it happen.
- Satellite images: The New York Times utilized AI when reporting recently on the extent of Israel’s bombing of Gaza. The paper used AI to track satellite images to track craters in the Palestinian territory and was able to create an estimate of the number of bombs dropped.
- Robot Reporters: News Corp Australia is currently using AI to produce 3,000 articles a week on select local topics such as weather, fuel prices and traffic conditions. A small team oversees the articles before they are published.
- AI Article summaries: These summaries allow readers to get a quick overview of an article to decide if they want to continue or not.
- Catching harassing comments on websites: AI systems, such as Natural Language Processing, allow online news organizations to catch harassing or hateful speech on their commenting platforms. It can flag questionable posts for human review, or in some cases remove it immediately.