AI writing and journalism. What is automated journalism?
In today’s world, AI technology is rapidly developing. For example, AI writing tools can produce content for businesses, marketing, and sales from inputted keywords or questions. They collect information from all over the internet and create a copy just within a few seconds.
When it comes to AI writing and journalism, it becomes a little more complicated. Automated journalism can be described as a process of writing media articles by AI machines and computer programs. If we are talking about what AI writing tools in journalism can do, it is possible to name three main spheres:
- Processing data, usually a huge amount;
- Choosing article template;
- Inserting key points in the article, such as scores or ranking.
Journalism is associated with presenting news and what is happening around the world. Since AI robots cannot create news (they rely on existing information) or work as a reporter in real-time, we need human journalists as well. However, there is no doubt that AI writing can benefit journalism. How? Let’s look at some examples:
- AI writing can generate straightforward stories, that require little research, at a fast speed. If you are a journalist, you know how time-consuming it can be to write an article. Automated journalism can offer basic copies, for example, sport news or natural disaster news, at a fast speed. This really facilitates journalists’ job and lets them focus on more complicated issues;
- AI writing can cover basic news for local communities and fulfill the agenda. As we said before, AI generates content at a fast speed, this means hundreds of copies. Also, they can process huge amounts of data. This is a big help to journalists, and AI writing ensures that fewer stories are left behind;
- AI writing can help to generate a headline, subheadline, or introduction/conclusion. Human journalists can use AI tools as assistance. For example, they can generate specific parts or paragraphs of his/her article and edit them.
So, automated journalism is best for data-driven journalism, for example, statistics. If you want to generate a more complex story, you have to edit it – AI-generated content may be racist, sexist, or even fake news. However, a lot of big media companies nowadays use AI writing as an additional tool – that is why automated journalism has become so relevant. Examples are sports (Olympics) and natural disasters (earthquakes) statistics and activity.