AI is already being used in the process of curating news. There are many AI programs like Bard, ChatGPT, Alphacode, Quillbot, Hyperwrite, GitHub, Copilot, Synthesia, Stable Diffusion, MidJourney, etc. that are capable of creating text, video, image, and content management systems (CMS) and, they are proving to be very helpful for media persons in such works. There have been many revolutionary changes in AI in the last eight to ten months. Generative AI is the result of these changes. AI mainly works on two patterns--predictive AI, which makes future predictions based on already existing data. Its advanced version is generative AI. It creates great content by synthesizing large sets of data through specially designed models to create a new content based on the training data.
Role of Journalists Versus AI
It is being said that there is neither any such sentiment behind it nor is it possible for it to eliminate the role of journalists in the world of news and replace them. The reason is that AI cannot go to the field and do reporting, cannot verify the facts of the news, cannot introduce human sensibilities in writing the news, and cannot take feedback from the concerned parties. But all these things are not reassuring anyone. Neither do those serious readers and social thinkers who are concerned about the increasing amount of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news and the decreasing credibility of the media in this era of dominance of information and communication technology. And neither do those journalists who lose their jobs by becoming victims of 'layoffs' in every crisis. Works like poetry, translation, editing, scripting, proofreading, summarizing, creating resumes, rewriting content, etc. has made a huge impact on the work that freelancers get. Now the news of AI reaching newsrooms has further increased their worries.
Fake News and AI
There is no doubt that this can cause a lot of turmoil. This may prove to be a change in many traditional things, especially in the case of news presentations. AI-generated deep fakes have become a topic of concern around the world these days. The term refers to fake content that appears to be more credible than it actually is. AI algorithms can create content. Facts cannot be fabricated. For this, the program will have to depend on all the inputs available in the cyber field to learn the LLM, i.e., large language model algorithms. It is full of fake news, misinformation, and propaganda material. People who use Chat-GPT or other artificial intelligence programs know how these programs give one answer to a question and, when in doubt, apologize and give another answer to the same question, completely different from the first. It happens. Obviously, they do not have the ability to choose the correct one from two different available facts.
Drawbacks of AI
Protecting news from this threat can prove to be a big challenge. When a person writes news, his work is not just the collection and presentation of information. Rather, in the meantime, he has to keep many things in mind and take decisions using his intelligence. Can this be expected from AI? He can certainly do the work of writing news, but at present he hardly has the algorithm to assess the impact of the news. For example, when a plane crash is reported, according to newspaper policies, it may emphasize both the death toll of ten and the intelligence of the pilot, who was successful in saving the lives of a hundred passengers. AI can't decide which angle should be taken. And even if he is capable of doing so, he cannot be given this right. Otherwise, it may prove even more fatal.
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Dr. Sanjai Kumar Srivastava
Associate Professor,
School of Media Studies,
Jaipur National University, Jaipur, India