AI Generates Fresh Challenges for Journalists
STORY BY ERIC WISHART
The launch of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools capable of producing high quality text and images has triggered much discussion about their impact on the future of journalism.
AI was seen for many years as a useful tool that spared journalists from the drudgery of mundane tasks such as typing out company results and transcribing interviews.
That changed with the arrival of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, which seemed to pose an existential threat to the journalism profession.
Who needs reporters when you can upload the minutes of a town council meeting and ask ChatGPT to produce a news story focusing on a particular angle of community interest? Who needs photojournalists when a text-to-image generator can produce photorealistic images to illustrate a story?