Charlie Beckett: “Artificial intelligence will also pose a threat to the journalism industry”

Newsrooms have been using artificial intelligence for years. What is generative AI used for and what changes can it bring?

It has been used to perform repetitive and mentally simple tasks at large scale and speed. It can be used to automate news gathering, headline writing and distribution. The opportunities have increased a lot.

They were caught this week Sports Illustrated Publishing AI-generated news from fake writers. How should we apply artificial intelligence?

This wasn’t the fault of the technology, but the fault of the human editors who lied to their readers by pretending that a human had written them. Generative AI will be a part of everything and will be really useful for journalists to be more productive. It is foolish to think that they will replace journalistic experience. As we become more familiar with it, we will understand its limitations and that it is sometimes flawed. It gets better every month and in two years it will be different again.

Artificial intelligence will mean more competition for journalists

Can you help the media overcome its serious financial crisis?

I think it will help. Anything that will make journalism more efficient is welcome. In some ways this will also be a challenge. Why go into journalism if you can use ChatGPT? If you want to find information, you can ask a productive AI. In this sense, artificial intelligence will mean more competition for journalists. Many major language models provide answers to users but do not link to media web pages. So this will also be a threat to the newspaper business.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism warns that “it will be harder than ever to distinguish what is real from what is false, misleading or manipulated.” Will AI become another layer of misinformation online?

Yes, it makes misinformation much easier to create and harder to detect. But since misinformation already exists, I don’t know if its impact will change. People decide to create and spread frauds; so if you want to counter this you need to address their causes. Focusing solely on the technology they use can be distracting.

Artificial intelligence is already being used for political and propaganda messages, for example in the war in Ukraine and Gaza.

Yes, but I don’t think it’s anything particularly new. Before the Internet, media was already used for propaganda purposes and social networks were developed. But after all, this is a human thing. There is also evidence that the impact of propaganda is limited, especially in Western democracies. I think AI can also be used to counter this.

There is an opportunity: People want independent, serious, logical and verified information

AI suffers from ‘hallucinations’ and can present something made up as if it were true. Many experts point out that heavy use can poison what appears in search engines. Will the disruption of the information ecosystem reinforce the importance of media and journalists who know how to gain the trust of readers?

Of course, but first we need to be realistic about journalism. Many journalists spread disinformation, spread propaganda, and act biased. They can even spread hate messages intentionally or accidentally by not verifying what they say. That’s why we shouldn’t be arrogant about doing journalism. But there is definitely an opportunity: People want reliable information, and the pandemic has made that clear. They sometimes seek partisan information, but they also need independent, serious, logical, and verified thinking.

The economic logic of digital has prioritized content that appeals to our emotions because it keeps us around longer. Many media outlets have succumbed to provocative approaches in their desperate efforts to attract the attention of readers. Could the rise of artificial intelligence increase partisanship and place greater emphasis on opinions in the media?

Over the last 10-15 years we have seen journalism brands follow the trend of becoming more personally and ideologically aligned with their readers. Something similar happened in politics, which was no longer so concerned with class and began to pay more attention to personal feelings and values.

We spend too much time writing about robots and whether they pose a threat to humans

Another important issue is how the media reports on AI. Tech giants promote an exaggerated narrative that benefits their business interests and do so with eye-catching ads that attract the attention of the majority of the media.

There are people in Silicon Valley who truly believe that AI could destroy humanity, and it’s fair to report that, but I agree with you too. This is a distraction from real issues like racial discrimination, privacy, or surveillance. It can also be used in incredible ways, as medical research has shown, but there needs to be a lot more information about everything that’s going on. We spend a lot of time writing about robots and whether they pose a threat to humans. And these stories are not addressed adequately, logically and politically.

In Catalonia, a report laments the overemphasis on business sources but the limited number of critical voices. Do you share this concern?

I think so, it’s been a concern for decades. Even before the internet, a report was published in the UK showing the laziness of newsrooms that recycled press releases without questioning. The increase in companies’ investments is related to the importance of media. Now companies are taking advantage of the crisis in the journalism industry and filling this gap with their sponsored content. AI can help you manage the sheer volume of emails you receive and transcribe that interview, but it won’t help solve this problem in the bud. Our hope is that they will help journalists become more critical and independent.