AI could ‘undermine’ journalism: News Corp’s Robert Thomson

work

To Ariel Zilber

May 26, 2023 | 1:56 PM

News Corp CEO Robert Thomson has warned that the rise of artificial intelligence could ‘fatally undermine’ journalism, and could lead to the abandonment of humans in various knowledge-based industries. I repeated the dire prediction that there would be no.

Thomson addressed industry leaders at the International News Media Association’s global conference in New York on Thursday, urging them to swipe proprietary content and keep advertising dollars away from “blacklisted” publications. He warned against AI programs that could

“Our Collective IP [intellectual property] It’s under threat from AI,” said Thomson, chief executive of the Post’s parent company, which also owns The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and The London Times.

“First, our content is collected, scraped, and otherwise ingested to train the AI ​​engine.

“Second, individual stories will now appear in specific searches.”

“And thirdly, our content is synthesized and presented as separate, when in fact it is an editorial extract,” Thomson added.

“These are super snippets of great journalism effort and insight in all, but they are designed to make sure readers never visit journalism websites, and they are fatally detrimental to journalism.”

Thomson cites “extreme revenue pressure” and “uncertain macroeconomic times ahead” for the news business, and media companies will be required to “optimize their operations.”

He set his sights on the Global Disinformation Index and the like to discourage advertisers from dealing with publishers who publish articles deemed “disinformation.”

GDI, which is based in the UK and has an affiliate in the US, has reportedly created a secret “excluded list” of its media outlets with the aim of refusing to pay advertising dollars to conservative media outlets.

“These arrogant armchair amateurs wield undue influence over the advertising dollars of agencies and companies,” said Thomson.

“There is no masthead that is immune to sudden, capricious changes in algorithmic rankings that can impact ad revenue,” he said.

“Apart from that, we all depend on advertising to a greater or lesser extent, but some ad agencies are unnecessarily nervous about news adjacencies.”

Thomson said he recently consulted with the CEO of a major advertiser and wondered why the company was banning ads from appearing in the Post.

“The chief executive said he had no knowledge of such a ban,” Thomson said.

“So he looked it up and what was a really irritating surprise was that a highly politicized agency had issued a post ban.”

The GDI blacklist is reportedly sent to a large advertising company that is being lobbied by a “bipartisan” organization that purports to fight online misinformation.

According to the Washington Examiner, the companies are under pressure to end dealings with right-leaning conservative news outlets, including Newsmax, the Federalist, the Daily Wire and the New York Post. It says.

According to the GDI website, the group aims to “remove financial incentives” to spread “disinformation” by distributing “dynamic exclusion lists” that rank media outlets according to “risk” factors. It is said that it is aiming.

Complicating matters is the fact that “journalism is now dealing with a sudden glut of artificial information,” Thomson said.

The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, The New York Times, BBC and Thomson Reuters are among the news agencies that have begun to apply AI to their news operations.

But AI-powered journalism lacks “EI,” or emotional intelligence with human editorial judgment, he said.

“For us, AI without EI is empty content calories,” Thomson said.

“Given that we are in the editorial empathy business, emotional intelligence should be our comparative advantage.”

Thomson added, “We need to know how to bring knowledge to those who know it…and we need to be more collective when negotiating for the values ​​and virtues of journalism.” added.