🏙️ What happens when AI writes the news?

Plus, a collection of articles to help you navigate this economic downturn. This is your Sunday Briefing.

Author

Kate Wilson
April 23, 2023

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to speak on AI and journalism at KPMG’s inaugural Generative AI summit. The event was a fantastic and varied exploration of how Gen AI needs to be incorporated ethically into your business, and how it needs to happen right now. Truly, it was one of the best summits I’ve been to in a long time.

Here’s the thing, though. We didn’t talk enough about how terrifying the upcoming onslaught of misinformation will be, and how that will impact society. Being fooled by an AI image generator’s Balenciaga-clad Pope, or the new deepfake Drake and the Weeknd song, is one thing. But what happens when people start using AI copywriting tools to generate “news?”

It’s only a matter of time before AI-only “news outlets” start producing and disseminating their own content. And when that happens, those stories are going to eat the lunch of real journalism. The original research, interviewing, and fact-checking that are built into the journalistic process takes time. While AI can produce something that reads convincingly in seconds, it’s often not correct.

I was asked on Wednesday what we can do to avoid this dystopian future — where people can’t trust anything they read. Here’s what I think. It’s not possible to regulate the use of AI in news: with ChatGPT, the genie is already out of the bottle. The only way we can be sure of truthful, original news is to bolster the organizations that we read and trust right now.

What can you do? AI “news sites” are coming soon, and will take the market share away from trusted journalistic outfits, spreading misinformation in their wake. Don’t let them. Vote with your wallet, and pay for your news now.

Supporting real news sites isn’t just for you. Truly, it’s for the survival of society.

Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 1,110 words: a four-minute read.

-Kate, @KateWilsonSays

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