AI is coming for journalism: Here’s how to save your job

AI-powered text generation tools and automation might be threatening journalism jobs, but journalists can still work with the tech to improve their tradecraft and find new stories.

Journalism may have found the story of the century as it reports on its own demise. While statistics have most frequently pointed to AI and automation replacing jobs in sectors such as manufacturing, we’re now experiencing the arrival of sophisticated text generation tools – for example, OpenAI’s ChatGPT – that can write reasonably convincing articles.

In addition to the downsizing of newsrooms around the world due to shrinking budgets and closing publications, the threat of replacement by automation is another worry the jobbing journalist doesn’t need.

“In the last 20 years, in the US alone, journalism has lost more jobs than the coal industry,” noted David Rubin, CMO at the New York Times. So, does the rapid evolution of generative predictive text algorithms spell the end for human journalists? Not necessarily. But it almost certainly will replace elements of their jobs.

Changing how journalists report the news

What will AI replace? “First, basic reporting,” said Nick Thompson, CEO of the Atlantic. “Obviously, machines can do sports scores, and probably a lot of sports reporting.”

Next up, said Nick, is copy editing. “Grammarly is already reducing the need for copy editors,” Nick said, clarifying it isn’t there yet in terms of the role’s finer-detail elements.

“AI will gradually move up the chain, and people who are in [vulnerable positions] need to just make sure they’re expanding and future-proofing and learning how to use those tools to help them do their jobs more efficiently,” added Nick.

This goes for all those involved in content creation, from the writer to the graphic designer. “The craziest advance has been in image creation – what’s been going on with Dall-E and Stable Diffusion, like the ability to illustrate a piece of content with AI,” said Big Technology founder Alex Kantrowitz.

“If you had asked me six months ago when illustrators would be replaced by AI, I would have said five years. Now, it’s obviously much closer.”

Beyond text: Can avatars do TV news?

If you’re a podcaster or broadcast journalist, don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet. According to Alex – a podcaster by trade – the ultimate endpoint of these technologies is avatars that can speak and report the news much like any human reporter.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight, but if you asked me what I thought when LaMDA [a Google chatbot system based on some of the most advanced large language models in the world] was able to fool a Google engineer into thinking it was a person … I read some of those chats. It was pretty convincing,” said Alex.

Alex thinks the next step for this type of project would be for the AI “to take on a persona and speak”.

Nick disagreed: “My guess is that so much of what makes an anchor good is not their ability to synthesise the news; it’s their emotional connection to the audience.”

Nick Thompson and Alex Kantrowitz at Web Summit. Image: Sam Barnes/Web Summit

However, the Atlantic CEO wouldn’t be surprised if the roles of the scriptwriters and researchers providing newsreaders with summaries were automated in the near future.

Journalists can work with AI rather than against it

This is, of course, setting up a false dichotomy where either humans or AIs win. In reality, it’s more likely that this kind of sophisticated technology, when coupled with automation, could augment the role of the modern journalist.

“If you’re a journalist, you know tech comes along and it replaces some of what we do. But, if you’re really canny, you learn how to use it,” explained Nick.

“What reporters should be doing is asking: ‘How exactly can I identify what the smartest advances are in tech, whether it’s AI or elsewhere, and use it to help me with my tradecraft; help me identify the questions I can ask; help me to identify where the missing information I need to find is?’,” Nick added.

“If I were to go back into my old life as an editor or as a journalist looking for stories, I would 100 percent be digging into all these tools and trying to use them as best as possible. Anything that can get you an edge,” said Nick.

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Main image of the Atlantic CEO Nick Thompson and Big Technology founder Alex Kantrowitz discussing AI replacing journalists at Web Summit: Sam Barnes/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)