Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the US with over 200 daily outlets, plans to integrate generative artificial intelligence (AI) into its publishing system. This move is part of a wider trend in news organizations that are using AI technologies to save money and increase efficiency. However, unlike some other news outlets, Gannett will include humans in the process to ensure oversight and prevent the deployment of technology without proper supervision.
According to Renn Turiano, senior vice president and head of product at Gannett, generative AI can help journalists eliminate tedious tasks and create efficiencies. However, Turiano also acknowledged that some news services have made mistakes by prioritizing speed over accuracy. Gannett will not make the same mistake and will use a measured approach to incorporating AI tools.
Many newsrooms are grappling with how best to incorporate AI tools that generate new content or data in response to prompts or questions from users. However, experts have pointed out the limitations of generative AI that can “hallucinate” or provide misinformation with a veneer of certainty. Accuracy is paramount in the news industry, and therefore, many news outlets are adopting a cautious approach to the use of generative AI.
Gannett plans to roll out a live pilot program next quarter that uses AI to identify the most important points of an article and create bulleted summaries at the top of it. Journalists will have the final say on whether to use the summary that the AI proposes. Gannett will eventually incorporate this summarization technology into its publishing system.
Gannett’s journalists are concerned that they may be replaced by technology. The company spokesperson has clarified that AI will not replace journalists but will help them be more efficient and focus on creating valuable content. Last year, Gannett laid off over 600 employees, but its cost-cutting measures have made it profitable.
Apart from incorporating generative AI in its publishing system, Gannett is also developing a tool that would break long-form stories into various lengths and formats like bullet points or captions on photos to create a slideshow. To summarize its stories, Gannett is relying on Cohere, a company that competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI.
While many news organizations have relied on some form of AI to recommend and personalize content, new developments in generative AI have reignited industry interest. Gannett has also experimented with natural language generation, a form of AI that builds a text narrative around factual data to create a story. However, journalists review the stories before publication.
Other news outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg are also developing their own AI tools. The New York Times and The Washington Post are in the planning phase, while Bloomberg is developing its own generative AI model, BloombergGPT.
Reuters is using AI for voice-to-text transcription to produce scripts and subtitles for video, but it is not publishing AI-generated stories, videos, or photographs. BBC News Labs is testing whether it can semi-automate the generation of short-form explainers. It has built a prototype that draws on pre-published pieces of BBC content and uses the ChatGPT-3 model to write it. However, Miranda Marcus, head of the BBC News Labs, emphasized that journalists must manually pull out content generated by AI before it can reach an audience.
While AI can help journalists eliminate tedious tasks and create efficiencies, it also has limitations that can compromise accuracy. News organizations like Gannett are adopting a measured approach to incorporating AI tools. The company plans to include humans in the process to ensure oversight and prevent the deployment of technology without proper supervision.
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