How AI 'revolution' is shaking up journalism

PARIS, France — Journalists had fun last year asking the shiny new AI chatbot ChatGPT to write their columns, most concluding that the bot was not good enough to take their jobs. Yet.

But many commentators believe journalism is on the cusp of a revolution where mastery of algorithms and AI tools that generate content will be a key battleground.

The technology news site CNET perhaps heralded the way forward when it quietly deployed an AI program last year to write some of its listicles.

It was later forced to issue several corrections after another news site noticed that the bot had made mistakes, some of them serious.

But CNET's parent company later announced job cuts that included editorial staff -- though executives denied AI was behind the layoffs.

The German publishing behemoth Axel Springer, owner of Politico and German tabloid Bild among other titles, has been less coy.

"Artificial intelligence has the potential to make independent journalism better than it ever was –- or simply replace it," the group's boss Mathias Doepfner told staff last month.

Hailing bots like ChatGPT as a "revolution" for the industry, he announced a restructuring that would see "significant reductions" in production and proofreading.

Both companies are pushing AI as a tool to support journalists, and can point to recent developments in the industry.

'Glorified word processor' 

For the past decade, media organizations have been increasingly using automation for routine work like searching for patterns in economic data or reporting on company results.

Outlets with an online presence have obsessed over "search engine optimization", which involves using keywords in a headline to get favored by the Google or Facebook algorithms and get a story seen by the most eyeballs.

And some have developed their own algorithms to see which stories play best with their audiences and allow them to better target content and advertising -- the same tools that turned Google and Facebook into global juggernauts.

Alex Connock, author of "Media Management and Artificial Intelligence", says that mastery of these AI tools will help decide which media companies survive and which ones fail in the coming years.

And the use of content creation tools will see some people lose their jobs, he said, but not in the realms of analytical or high-end reporting.

"In the specific case of the more mechanistic end of journalism -- sports reports, financial results -- I do think that AI tools are replacing, and likely increasingly to replace, human delivery," he said.

Not all analysts agree on that point.

Mike Wooldridge of Oxford University reckons ChatGPT, for example, is more like a "glorified word processor" and journalists should not be worried.

"This technology will replace journalists in the same way that spreadsheets replaced mathematicians -- in other words, I don't think it will," he told a recent event held by the Science Media Centre.

He nonetheless suggested that mundane tasks could be replaced -- putting him on the same page as Connock.

'Test the robots' 

French journalists Jean Rognetta and Maurice de Rambuteau are digging further into the question of how ready AI is to take over from journalists.

They publish a newsletter called "Qant" written and illustrated using AI tools.

Last month, they showed off a 250-page report written by AI detailing the main trends of the CES technology show in Las Vegas.

Rognetta said they wanted to "test the robots, to push them to the limit".

They quickly found the limit.

The AI struggled to identify the main trends at CES and could not produce a summary worthy of a journalist. It also pilfered wholesale from Wikipedia.

The authors found that they needed to intervene constantly to keep the process on track, so while the programs helped save some time, they were not yet fit to replace real journalists.

Journalists are "afflicted with the syndrome of the great technological replacement, but I don't believe in it", Rognetta said.

"The robots alone are just not capable of producing articles. There is still a part of journalistic work that cannot be delegated."

Agence France-Presse

NBC News fires ‘Today’ co-host Matt Lauer for sexual misconduct

NEW YORK | NBC News fired Matt Lauer, the popular host of its “Today” morning show, on Wednesday after a female colleague accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior, the network said, making him the latest rich and powerful man to be felled by such accusations.

His termination sent shockwaves through U.S. morning television, where Lauer has been a fixture since becoming a “Today” anchor in 1997 and went on to become one of NBC’s highest-paid personalities, earning $20 million a year.

The married 59-year-old news star was the latest public figure to be embroiled in accusations of sexual misconduct that have recently struck down high-profile men in entertainment, politics and media.

Just hours later, U.S. radio host Garrison Keillor said he had been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over an accusation of inappropriate behavior.

The complaint made by an unnamed female colleague on Monday night was a “clear violation” by Lauer of the company’s standards, NBC News chairman Andrew Lack said in a statement.

“While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident,” Lack said.

The network issued a second statement in response to a report in the Hollywood trade publication Variety that said several women had complained to the network about Lauer’s behavior.

“We can say unequivocally, that, prior to Monday night, current NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer’s conduct,” an NBC spokeswoman said.

Lauer’s agent Ken Lindner did not respond to requests for comment.

The news was announced by “Today” co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb at the start of the talk show, a staple of U.S. morning television for more than six decades that, NBC says, averages more than 4 million viewers.

“We just learned this moments ago just this morning,” Guthrie said, visibly shaken. “As I‘m sure you can imagine we are devastated.”

Lack’s statement did not say who made the accusation, but promised that NBC News would cover Lauer’s firing in “as transparent a manner as we can.”

The woman had met with New York Times reporters on Monday before meeting with NBC’s human resources and legal departments that evening to share her allegation, the Times reported, saying that she said she was not ready then to publicly identify herself.

Her Washington-based lawyer, Ari Wilkenfeld, said the meeting with NBC officials lasted several hours.

“In fewer than 35 hours, NBC investigated and removed Mr. Lauer,” Wilkenfeld wrote in a statement. “Our impression at this point is that NBC acted quickly, as all companies should, when confronted with credible allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace.”

The complaint said the sexual misconduct occurred while Lauer and the female colleague were covering the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics in Russia and continued after the Games, NBC News reporter Stephanie Gosk said on air.

An NBC representative did not respond to a request for more details.

Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable television company, owns NBCUniversal. Its shares rose 2.4 percent to $37.13.

“Today” earned $509 million in advertising revenue last year, more than any of its competitors, New York-based analysts Kantar Media said.

Lauer joined “Today” in 1994 and has interviewed presidents George Bush and Barack Obama and broadcast from seven Olympic Games. He had been due to join his co-hosts for the nationally-televised lighting of the giant Christmas tree at New York City’s Rockefeller Center on Wednesday night.

According to Fortune Magazine, he signed a two-year deal in 2016 that would pay him $20 million per year.

U.S. President Donald Trump responded with messages on Twitter calling for some of Lauer’s colleagues to be fired too, and adding to his recent attacks against U.S. news outlets for their reporting on his administration.

“Wow,” Trump wrote about Lauer. “But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News.”

During the 2016 presidential campaign, then-Republican candidate Trump was accused by 13 women who publicly said that in the past he had physically touched them inappropriately in some way, the Washington Post reported. Trump denied the accusations.

source: interaksyon.com

McCain: How to get started as a dictator? Suppress free press.

MUNICH - US Senator John McCain, defending the media against the latest attack by President Donald Trump, warned suppressing the free press was "how dictators get started."

The Arizona Republican, a frequent critic of Trump, was responding to a tweet in which Trump accused the media of being “the enemy of the American people.”

The international order established after World War Two was built in part on a free press, McCain said in an excerpt of an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that was released in advance of the full Sunday morning broadcast.

"I hate the press. I hate you especially," he told interviewer Chuck Todd from an international security conference in Munich. "But the fact is we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It's vital."

"If you want to preserve - I'm very serious now - if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started," he continued.

"They get started by suppressing free press. In other words, a consolidation of power. When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press. And I'm not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history," McCain said.

McCain’s comments followed Trump’s tweet and came days after the president held a raucous news conference at which he repeatedly criticized news reports about disorder in the White House and leaks of his telephone conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel underscored the importance of a free press at the Munich conference on Saturday, saying, "I have high respect for journalists. We've always had good results, at least in Germany, by relying on mutual respect."

Merkel did not mention Trump specifically, but called freedom of the press "a very significant pillar of democracy."

source: interaksyon.com

Yahoo to be named Altaba, Mayer to leave board after Verizon deal

Yahoo Inc said Monday that it would rename itself Altaba Inc and Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer would step down from the board after the closing of its deal with Verizon Communications Inc.

Yahoo has a deal to sell its core internet business, which includes its digital advertising, email and media assets, to Verizon for $4.83 billion.

The terms of that deal could be amended - or the transaction may even be called off - after Yahoo last year disclosed two separate data breaches; one involving some 500 million customer accounts and the second involving over a billion.

Verizon executives have said that while they see a strong strategic fit with Yahoo, they are still investigating the data breaches.

Five other Yahoo directors would also resign after the deal closes, Yahoo said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

The remaining directors will govern Altaba, a holding company whose primary assets will be a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan.

The new company also named Eric Brandt chairman of the board, effective Jan. 9.

source: interaksyon.com

BBC, Reader’s Digest, Spotify join #AlDub bandwagon

Even the rest of the world is taking a closer look at #AlDub.

No longer confined to the entire country, the phenomenal #AlDub love team of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza is also beginning to capture the imagination of foreign media.

One day after InterAksyon tried to make sense of #AlDub, BBC News Online, the most frequently accessed news website of the United Kingdom, posted the news story “’AlDub’: A social media phenomenon about love and lip-synching” Wednesday (Thursday, Manila time).

Written by Heather Chen, the piece also tries to put #AlDub in the proper perspective as it offers “everything you need to know about lip-synching, being in love with somebody you have never met and how to break records on Twitter.”

The story includes interviews with TV host and blogger Daphne Oseña-Paez as well as BBC presenter Rico Hizon who confesses to being a fan of the “Kalyeserye” segment of “Eat Bulaga” where #AlDub began as a split-screen love team.

It also cited several local reports, including InterAksyon’s own piece on Maine Mendoza being in the same league as Taylor Swift and Katy Perry as among the fastest growing celebrities on Twitter.

Aside from the BBC, Reader’s Digest is also jumping on the #AlDub bandwagon. Alden and Maine are set to grace the cover of the December issue of the Asian edition of the 93-year-old general interest magazine that originated in New York in 1922.

Like the BBC, Reader’s Digest is also considered an institution and to date, continues to have a strong presence in print media.

The “globalization” of #AlDub does not end there as the popular music streaming service Spotify recently created its own “#AlDub: Happily Ever After” playlist featuring such tracks as Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” which is now known as the entrance theme song of Lola Tinidora (Jose Manalo), Bryan White’s “God Gave Me You” and Alden Richards’ latest hit single, “Wish I May”.

Spotify has currently over 75 million users worldwide.

source: interaksyon.com

CNN launches research for drones in journalism

WASHINGTON — CNN said Monday it was launching a research project with the Georgia Institute of Technology on how drones could be used for newsgathering by media organizations.

The research will evaluate the technology, personnel and safety needs to operate effectively and will share its findings with the Federal Aviation Administration, which is considering rules for unmanned aerial vehicles.

“Our hope is that by working cooperatively to share knowledge, we can accelerate the process for CNN and other media organizations to safely integrate this new technology into their coverage plans,” said David Vigilante, CNN senior vice president, in a statement.

Georgia tech researcher Mike Heiges said drones “have a number of applications that benefit society, such as search and rescue, disaster response and agricultural mapping and crop assessment,” and added that “we’re excited to be engaging with CNN to study the newsgathering applications” for drones.

The move comes amid intense interest in drones beyond military and intelligence purposes. US authorities are considering new regulations that could allow civilian drones to share the airspace with manned aircraft.

Unlike other countries, the United States prohibits the use of drones, or unmanned aerial systems for commercial purposes, although the FAA grants rare exceptions for government and law enforcement use.

Earlier this year, 16 major US news organizations joined to accuse the FAA of curtailing freedom of the press by restricting the use of drones for news.

In a brief to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the news organizations including The New York Times and The Washington Post argued that drones are a First Amendment — or constitutional rights — concern.

The University of Nebraska in 2011 established a Drone Journalism Lab to examine how to use such aircraft for newsgathering.

source: interaksyon.com