Earlier today, the ABC warned of a change in its position on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in news production. Despite previous warnings, a recent deal with US tech company Anthropic opens the door for ABC staff to implement Claude AI into their broadcast news operations.
At this time, this coverage is limited to approximately 100 employees. However, ABC has indicated that it intends to expand this scope to include other operations. The broadcast station also plans to hire experts to help implement AI.
The station is also trialling local radio bulletins into stories using a unique AI tool developed by the ABC.
The goal is to expand the ABC’s production capacity while freeing up time for staff to pursue other core journalistic duties, such as investigations.
It remains to be seen how the public will react to this change, as Australians have a particular distrust of AI tools. However, the decision builds on a long history of editors and journalists being early adopters of technological innovation.
Journalists already use a variety of data tools. Generative AI can also be used to enhance the work of journalism in valuable and unprecedented ways.
But this comes at a time when journalism is facing a crisis of sustainability for journalists and news. AI can just as easily make problems worse as it can solve them.
The original techhead?
Journalists and news producers have long had a keen interest in innovations that have the potential to improve their hectic workflows, as well as a broader curiosity about cutting-edge tools and technology.
Chatbot-style generative AI has only made headlines in the last three years. But for more than a decade, journalists have been saving time by using automated systems and “robowriting” to turn data into simple news stories. In one 2016 study, readers even rated computer-written articles as “more trustworthy and with more journalistic expertise.”
Nevertheless, as technology adoption becomes more prevalent, there are also concerns that some innovations may be more destructive than beneficial.
For example, social media and analytics have introduced omnipotent algorithms as unwelcome additional editors to journalists’ work, undermining their autonomy.
Generative AI poses new threats that raise existential concerns for the sustainability of news.
destroy and replace journalism
Journalists are more concerned about generative AI than any other automated tool to date. This is because chatbots can write sentences just like humans. In response, they have emphasized their essential role as gatekeepers delivering news to the public.
Therefore, if an organization chooses to use AI in the production of journalism, a key question is how to address concerns about ethics and quality. Time-poor professionals in fields from law to medicine have found themselves getting badly burned by generative AI going off-script and creating plausible fictions.
This could pose a greater threat to journalists. The profession is already facing a crisis of public mistrust, including in Australia. Relying on AI to generate content opens the door to mistakes that news producers like the ABC cannot afford.
But these risks can be mitigated if newsrooms put more effort into validating and curating AI content. This makes the role of journalists as gatekeepers more important than ever. But it also relies on viewers having a relationship with journalists and appreciating their judgment and analysis in the first place.
These efforts represent a new kind of work that shifts the lens from the forms of production that have long been central to journalism.
space of opportunity
Conversely, modern AI tools offer journalists new ways to enhance their work. The same large-scale language models and other AI tools used by ordinary people to generate office emails and funny cat pictures are being used by journalists around the world to engage in unprecedented investigations and news production.
The BBC’s in-depth coverage of Russia’s presence in Ukraine leveraged AI to mine large amounts of text and video. This provided insights that would not have been possible or possible using manual methods.
News producers in the Global South have leveraged AI to overcome unique sourcing challenges. They were able to reuse and translate content, extending the already stretched capabilities of news reporters.
Generative AI saves you time. Using AI tools in daily news production creates scope for journalists to improve their relationships with their audiences, focus on quality, and make a stronger case for the unique value of their journalism.
Do we banish journalists or banish journalism?
These changes at the ABC come at a time when funding and resources for journalism are becoming increasingly scarce. Big tech has made the business models that have long supported our media system unsustainable, and Australian news organizations must compete with a glut of online media from around the world.
AI tools offer further replacement possibilities. AI summaries provided by search engines summarize news content rather than directing online traffic to the original news source.
Furthermore, AI-generated news can obscure Australian news organizations or redirect users to larger international news organizations, particularly those in the United States. Newsrooms are strategizing how to compete with AI as a source of news while also considering options for how to get the most out of it.
The ABC’s goal to leverage AI in its news operations is consistent with a long-established historical trend to keep journalism at the cutting edge of what technological innovation can offer.
Improving efficiency and expanding the capabilities of journalism is real, and audiences can appreciate the results even if they are distrustful of the technology itself.
The question remains whether the ABC can use AI to benefit the public without sacrificing its commitment to news quality or the public’s reputation for public broadcasting.
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify that Claude AI was not used to convert radio bulletins to text, but instead that ABC was using its own AI tools for this pilot.
