AI journalism

If you thought that AI is not yet having an impact on news organisations, think again. As panellist and data journalism pioneer Gary Rogers reminded this absorbing RTS discussion, “AI: the new frontier for journalism”, the Press Association’s Radar service – which he set up – has been using machine learning to create news stories for the past five years. Radar says it generates around 150,000 stories utilising local data journalism each year for clients across the UK.

Together with Norwegian YouTube and coder, Kris Fagerlie, Sky News created the reporter using ChatGPT and other publicly accessible AI software.

They found that the AI reporter was able to pitch a "topical, accurate and impartial story idea" within a single 20-minute software run.

But they also found that the reporter made vital mistakes, falsifying expert evidence for its article (something that's called "hallucinations" in AI science) and requiring human intervention to uphold other ethical and editorial standards.