AI raises concerns in journalism industry, society

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By CGTN's Yang Chengxi

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been replacing human efforts in a wide range of industries, and journalism is no exception.

AI reporters have been producing news reports for at least two years now. Although their works are not Pulitzer Prize winning materials, the articles are getting more and more well written.

As AI technology develops, the use of AI reporters might start to post concerns for the industry and society.

In a news report in Chinese by Internet firm Tencent from 2015 about consumer prices in China, it laid out the economic data and presented several analysts different takes on the numbers. It is considered a decently written article.

What is really unique about the report, is that it was written by a robot, called Dreamwriter, developed by Tencent.

It has been operational for nearly two years since then, publishing more than two thousand articles per day.

The news report by AI journalist Dreamwriter, in which it laid out the economic data and presented several analysts different takes on the numbers, is considered a decently written article. /Screenshot of the news report

"It is capable of writing flash financial news, sport news or weather forecast. Reporting that follow an established format,” said Wang Xiaojun, researcher of the Institute of Computer Science and Technology at Beijing University.

Many news organizations globally have been experimenting AI reporters.

Associated Press uses an AI called Wordsmith to report on about 3000 companies' earnings per season, liberating their human peers to focus on more in-depth stories.

Analysts say as AI evolves, AI reporters will possess more "human" features thanks to the technology of machine learning.

"AI used to just report on facts. For the next step I believe AI reporters can have their own positions on the issues they're reporting. These positions can either be pre-set by their human creators and also be acquired by the AI after analyzing online opinions,” said Wang.

"AI used to just report on facts. For the next step I believe AI reporters can have their own positions on the issues they're reporting."

- Wang Xiaojun, researcher of the Institute of Computer Science and Technology at Beijing University

That raises a series of questions for the journalism industry, as it allows AI reporters to be partial.

Also, machine learning can let AI reporters gain an unprecedented understanding of readers' opinions on all kinds of social issues, and feeding them highly customized news feeds.

"You'll only be shown the articles you'll only be interested in. This has caused significant polarization. People would like to read what they are already reading, so there's a social responsibility issue,” said Subbarao Kambgampati, president of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

Experts say concerns like this raise the need to closely analyze the impact of AI on society.