Let’s talk about artificial intelligence! 

Our work as journalists and media practitioners is constantly being challenged by new media forms. 

The latest game-changer is ChatGPT – the language learning model that’s founded on artificial intelligence – or as we like to call it “our little intern friend.”

Newsrooms across the world are thinking of ways to innovatively incorporate it into their work without sacrificing the integrity of the work itself. 

Experts have, however, warned that journalists, especially, must be aware of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT’s potential to produce false and fractured information or algorithmic biases among other risks, because the system is fundamentally trained to produce content in response to our prompts – a lot like training a new intern indeed. We just need to feed it as much targeted information as possible. 

The key is to use our own intelligence to ensure AI can work for us instead of replace us. 

As part of our ongoing experiments with ChatGPT we asked the system to find five of the most informative articles that talk about artificial intelligence and ChatGPT in journalism. We prompted it to include articles about the risks, the advantages, how we can use it, and which newsrooms are already using it and how. It took approximately 27 seconds to come up with the list below. 

“Five of the most informative articles that talk about artificial intelligence and ChatGPT in journalism” according to ChatGPT [unedited]

  1. “The Promises and Perils of AI” by Nicholas Thompson and WIRED Staff

This comprehensive article explores the current state of AI and the potential benefits and drawbacks that come with it. It also examines the ethical considerations and how AI is being used in different industries.

  1. “The Future of Journalism: Embracing AI and Chatbots” by Charlene Rhinehart on Forbes.

 This article discusses how AI and chatbots can be used in journalism to improve content delivery and audience engagement. It also explores the potential risks and ethical considerations involved in using these technologies in newsrooms.

  1. “The Rise of AI in Newsrooms” by Kathryn Hamilton on Medium. 

This article takes a closer look at how newsrooms are already using AI to automate tasks, analyze data, and personalize content for readers. It also explores the potential impact of AI on the future of journalism.

  1. “Artificial Intelligence: The Risks and Rewards for News Media” by Luke Carrol and Brendan O’Connor on The Conversation.

This article examines the potential benefits and risks of using AI in newsrooms, including the potential impact on jobs and the challenges of ensuring accuracy and impartiality in AI-generated content.

  1. “How The Washington Post is Using Artificial Intelligence to Help Reporters and Editors” by Jeremy Gilbert on NiemanLab.

This article explores how The Washington Post is using AI to improve newsroom efficiency, streamline workflows, and provide personalized content to readers. It also examines some of the challenges and ethical considerations involved in implementing AI in newsrooms.

Verdict: While the titles and descriptions of the articles are in line with our prompt, there are no direct links to articles with those titles or by the authors that they are attributed to. 

Expert: AI systems and models have difficulty in generating accurate and factual information related to current affairs, news and real-time data. Therefore AI does not have the capability to do breaking news – which is a complex and expensive operation that requires careful fact-checking and cross-referencing of information.

Pro tip: You have to make sure you double-check the information that ChatGPT produces. While it may ease the process, it needs YOU to make it work. 

Five of the most informative articles that talk about artificial intelligence and ChatGPT in journalism” according to frayintermedia 

1. Is ChatGPT a threat or an opportunity for journalism? Five AI experts weigh in by Marina Adami for Reuters Institute

With the rise of AI and ChatGPT many journalists are concerned with what this means for their work. There is no single right or wrong answer. Reuters Institute cuts through the noise in this informative piece by speaking to five media practitioners (from journalists, media owners and entrepreneurs) to get their expert opinion on how generative AI and large language models are likely to affect journalism in the short and the medium term. It provides insight on how the system works, how it’s being innovated in newsrooms around the world and how to counter some of the risks it might pose. 

2. 10 things you should know about AI in journalism by Mattia Peretti for Journalism AI

Nervous about using AI? It’s normal. This 10 minute read demystifies some of the daunting preconceived ideas that you may have about AI, especially the ideas picked up from dystopian movies or fear-mongers. In essence, AI is not AS bad as it is made to seem: you just need to take some time to get familiar with it, develop strategies and partnerships, and find the ways it can work for you. This article offers some tips on how to do that, too! 

3. A Guide to Collaborating With ChatGPT for Work by Alexandra Samuel for The Wall Street Journal

If you’re averse to incorporating new forms of technology in your work, then maybe it’s time to rethink that! This article offers a refreshing perspective on how we should embrace AI across the spectrum: this includes journalism. Think of it as a guide or helping hand/ support or an “intern” that’s always there for you. You just have to gently nudge it and tell it what to do. It will work for you, not replace you! 

4. Facts, fakes and figures: How AI is influencing journalism by Barbara Gruber for Goeth Institute

The usage of artificial intelligence in news writing and journalism is not entirely new (and most fields) as this article suggests. Bloomberg, for instance, started using Cyborg, a programme dissecting financial reports and instantly writing news stories with all relevant facts and figures before AI became popular, while  The Washington Post made headlines started using Heliograf, a home grown artificial intelligence technology, to cover the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and congressional elections. Other newsrooms are also using AI to increase turnaround time, and it’s been working. As these technologies advance, we just need to maintain journalistic standards to ensure that at the end of the day, we are producing journalism, not merely content. 

5. How to Stop AI From Eating Journalism by Hamilton Nolan for In These Times 

Journalism cannot be replaced – not unless we stop doing the work ourselves – but then would it be journalism at all? This article raises this question and more. Journalism requires good judgment, experience, critical thinking and emotional intelligence – none of which can be replicated by a machine. But there will always be space for some form of technology to take care of a task: think transcription tools for those long videos. At the end of the day, we just need to tap into our own discretions when producing a good, unbiased, factually correct and coherent story – even with the help of ChatGPT. 

Verdict: It may have taken frayintermedia a little longer than 27 seconds to source useful articles for journalists, the result was indeed more comprehensive (and it existed). 

Expert: The technology can be a tool to assist humans in news gathering, but it should never replace any humans in a newsroom.

Pro-tip: There are risks, but there are also opportunities for journalists to get ahead of the curve. You just need to think about it strategically. 

We hope this helped! 

Website | + posts

Content Writer