First it was Browser Company's Arc web browser, and now it's social networking platform X's artificial intelligence (AI) tool. Grok – AI platforms are now being trained to generate summaries of content for specific sites, and to avoid impacting traffic to news publishers and generating and propagating misleading content that negatively impacts the online information economy. This raises concerns about the possibilities.
X announced last week that its AI product Grok will summarize trending events on the platform with news points and additional commentary about the event. This service will be available under the “For You” tab on the platform's “Explore” page. When a user taps on an article, a summary is generated based on the conversations happening, rather than using the text of the article or news itself. on the platform. At the moment, this service is only available to paying users of His X.
Providing an overview of news events and trending topics on X is nothing new, having operated under the leadership of Jack Dorsett when the social network was called Twitter, but the platform has This is the first time I've used it to create an event summary.
Many are concerned that this will reduce the traffic that X sends to news publishers that typically cover all major national and international trends, but it is important to note that X's Grok takes into account the source data. Concerns have also been raised about the quality of the summaries that can be generated. Essentially what people are posting on social media platforms.
Journalists and trusted news publishers share work on the platform that is backed by rigorous ethical and fact-checking standards, but the platform is also known to have a problem with misinformation. Also, since Grok essentially relies on his conversations on X about specific developments, it is unclear how the system determines what is accurate information and what is not.
Additionally, many people question whether AI tools should be considered sources of factual information. Many in the industry argue that AI bots are better at creative work than authoritative news sources, given the problem of hallucinations. In countries with low digital literacy, users may assume that such chatbots are a reliable source of factual information without being aware of several pitfalls.
Freedom of the press varies from country to country, with regulations governing what journalists can and cannot write freely, but technology companies that have no financial or ethical responsibility for journalism are likely to have their own chatbots that regulators displease. If you create content that deems this to be the case, you may soon find yourself in the government's crosshairs. Because companies are likely to protect their commercial interests first, this has given way to concerns that the responses they generate are susceptible to self-censorship.
Some of this is already being implemented in India. For example, Google announced in the country that it would limit the types of election-related questions that users can ask Gemini, its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, and the Indian AI startup founded by Ola's Babish Agarwal. The company-developed chatbot “Kultrim'' was found to be self-censoring for certain keywords.
News companies must also address AI news summarization and the impact it may have on their business models. Business models usually rely on either advertising or subscriptions, but ultimately on the number of people visiting their website.
As a result, many news companies are signing content licensing deals with AI companies as an additional source of revenue. OpenAI recently announced a partnership with the Financial Times, with Axel Springer, Associated Press, Le Monde and others announcing similar moves.
But while well-funded news publishers may be better partners for AI companies in content licensing deals, smaller, niche, independent publishers may miss out on such revenue streams and lose their business. There are also concerns that it could pose a risk.
© Indian Express Private Limited
Date first uploaded: May 12, 2024, 05:45 IST
