Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing field that has the potential to transform many industries, including journalism. The use of AI in journalism is not new, but it is becoming more prevalent as the technology improves. AI can be used to automate the process of writing news articles, from gathering data to writing the final story. This has the potential to save time and resources for news organizations, but it also raises concerns about the impact on the job market for journalists.

One of the main concerns about the use of AI in journalism is the potential for job loss. AI-generated news articles can be written faster and more efficiently than those written by humans. This means that news organizations may choose to use AI instead of hiring journalists to write stories. This could lead to a reduction in the number of jobs available for journalists, as well as a decline in the quality of news content.

However, it’s important to note that AI is not going to replace human journalists entirely. AI is best suited for tasks such as data collection and analysis, while human journalists are better at tasks such as interpretation and storytelling. AI can assist and augment human journalists to improve the quality of news, but it will not replace human journalists’ role of verifying, investigating and reporting on news.

In conclusion, AI has the potential to revolutionize the field of journalism and bring many benefits, but it also raises important questions about the future of the profession. It’s important for news organizations to consider the potential impact of AI on the job market for journalists and find ways to integrate the technology in a way that preserves the quality of news and the livelihood of journalists.

So how was that? Yeah, in the most predictable plot twist ever, that entire four paragraph article was written by an AI. There was no editing or filling in gaps involved. All I had to do was type in the prompt “Write a 3 paragraph article about artificial intelligence and how it may take over reporter’s jobs” and my entire job was done for me. So, from the perspective of an actual human, will AI take over journalism?

Yes, definitely, but not anytime soon. The fact that it can already make this is absolutely insane. It was able to come up with not only the exact answer to my question, but also write an effective opening and closing paragraph. Not even mentioning that it gave evidence, examples, and genuinely good points I couldn’t even come up with. If this is what we can get in the very first years of AI, reporters might have to learn to code.

But of course, this is not perfect. It gave facts, sure, but nothing about this essay felt personal or human. It really just seemed like the AI was giving me what I wanted, and not much more. There is no hook, no personality, and it’s just not fun to read. I was genuinely considering telling readers that it was an AI at the start just to actually get them interested. AI might be extremely advanced, but it isn’t creative. Creativity is not something a robot can feel. It can try to replicate it, but it doesn’t have the experience or emotions that humans have.

So is journalism dead? No, not yet. I am not going to be using it for any articles in the near future and I don’t think anyone should. Give it a few years and this article might be funny to look back at, but for now it seems like the human touch is safe.

Should we be scared of AI though? Personally I don’t think so. I doubt anything bad is going to happen to us in our lifetimes, and I honestly think it’s going to be hundreds of years (if ever) before we’re living like the people in Wall-E. Also, there is next to no threat of a robot uprising. Unless someone is really stupid, robots should only be made for tasks. We are going to see plenty of robots that are made to fold packages, and very few potential human-killing ones.

I highly recommend messing around with AI. The website I used was called ChatGPT, which was released last November. Another cool one is Dall-E, which makes images and even paintings based on the prompt you give. Goofing around with these two alone is extremely fun, so go enjoy them! You might end up becoming a better reporter than me (probably not though).

Links:

https://chat.openai.com/chat

https://labs.openai.com/