According to The New York Times, Google is pushing its newly developed AI tool in Newsrooms to assist journalists in creating articles. Google demonstrated their tool for executives at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal’s owner.
This content tool, currently called Genesis, can reportedly produce news, including current events, based on information from sources with The New York Times. Google believes this tool can be a personal assistant for journalists by automating some tasks.
“In partnership with news publishers, especially smaller publishers, we’re in the earliest stages of exploring ideas to potentially provide AI-enabled tools to help journalists with their work,” said Jenn Crider; A Google Spokesperson. She added that “Our goal is to give journalists the choice of using these emerging technologies that enhance their work and productivity, just like we’re making assistive tools available for people in Gmail and in Google Docs.”
The bosses of those journalists may view the technology as a replacement for their employees instead of a tool for them. Earlier this year, CNET started producing articles with generative AI, which didn’t work well for the company. More than half of the articles created by AI required corrections.
“Google’s new tool, as described, had potential upsides and downsides. If this technology can deliver factual information reliably, journalists should use the tool,” said Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor and media commentator.
Objections About Artificial Intelligence
The new tool from Google, which generates AI-written articles without fact-checking or thorough editing, could spread misinformation and cause anxiety. Content creators and publishers have already criticised Google and other major A.I. companies for using their articles and posts to train A.I. systems without Writers’ consent.