Google touts AI for news, insists journalists can’t be replaced

Google is developing artificial intelligence-enabled tools to help journalists research and write news articles, a development that is likely to rattle nerves across the media industry after years of painful job cuts.

Google is developing artificial intelligence-enabled tools to help journalists research and write news articles, a development that is likely to rattle nerves across the media industry after years of painful job cuts.

Google is working with media outlets, particularly with small publishers, to provide AI-powered tools to assist journalists with “options for headlines or different writing styles”, the California-based tech giant said on Thursday.

“Our goal is to give journalists the choice of using these emerging technologies in a way that enhances their work and productivity, just like we’re making assistive tools available for people in Gmail and in Google Docs,” Google spokeswoman Jenn Crider said in a statement, adding that the company was still in the “earliest stages of exploring ideas”.

“Quite simply, these tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating, and fact-checking their articles.”

The development is likely to fuel a growing debate about the risks and benefits of AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, which has stunned users with its ability to mimic human speech but raised concerns about copyright infringement, misinformation and the replacement of human workers.

The global media industry has been decimated by successive rounds of layoffs amid a collapse in print advertising revenues, with US newsrooms alone shedding a record 17,436 jobs in the first five months of 2023.