Image credit: Reuters
Newspaper conglomerate, Gannett, is starting a new program that will add AI-generated bullet points to the beginning of news articles. According to The Verge, the goal of this new feature is to help readers quickly understand the main points of each story. The “key points” feature on articles utilises automated technology to generate summaries below the headline.
A disclaimer at the end of the article states, “The Key Points at the top of this article were created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and reviewed by a journalist before publication. No other parts of the article were generated using AI.” The May 14th memo mentions that participation in this feature is currently optional.
AI-generated summaries are already appearing online on certain USA Today stories, as Gannett owns the USA Today papers. According to a memo, the AI-generated summary improves the reporting process and enhances the audience experience.
The memo also mentions that the in-house team spent nine months training the AI model that powers this tool. Gannett has tried using AI for content generation, but it hasn’t been without its challenges. Last August, Gannett had to stop AI-generated sports recaps due to awkward writing that readers found amusing.
Then, in October, there was some speculation from Reviewed, Gannett’s consumer products site, that AI was being used to produce content. However, it’s worth noting that the third-party marketing company involved in this work was also linked to the Sports Illustrated AI controversy. Despite these incidents, Gannett maintained that the product reviews were not AI-generated.
Recent developments in AI-generated summaries for news articles reflect the increasing integration of AI into search platforms. At the Google I/O developer conference, Google introduced various AI-powered features. These features were for search, including incorporating AI-generated answers at the top of search results.
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.