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News is a really weird place to start with AI, because it obviously doesn't work. The AI cannot go out into the world and do investigating journalism. It still

News is a really weird place to start with AI, because it obviously doesn't work. The AI cannot go out into the world and do investigating journalism. It still can't access tons of documents that are still hidden away in archives and libraries around the world and it cannot do an sit though endless hours of court room session (even if that might be a fairly good place to start). The only "news" AIs can report on are press releases, that and rehashed articles written by journalists. Due to the volume of half-arsed news the current AIs can generate your average reader might not notice that some is missing, though I questions that. People are starting to notice that their newspapers doesn't actually have news anymore (and that's just do to cost optimization and competition from ad supported online news). I fear that we're entering a world where some of us pay for news written by real journalists, while the masses consume garbage "news" which is more tailored to them clicking ads, rather that learning about the world.

Ensorceled 3y ago
> News is a really weird place to start with AI, because it obviously doesn't work. The AI cannot go out into the world and do investigating journalism. The news business are almost entirely an ad business now. Only a few sites do real investigative journalism and only with a few journalists. Many news businesses are now owned or majority controlled by billionaires and have the expected editorial biases that also don't really support hard hitting journalism.
skybrian 3y ago
A lot of in-depth news comes from organizations that are funded by paid subscriptions, which gets copied elsewhere. The better websites cite their sources when re-reporting it. So, I guess we can thank the subscribers? We’re all copying other people’s homework, especially in social media. How much of what you know about the world comes from personal observation? Most people haven’t traveled to most places.

Ensorceled 3y ago

> News is a really weird place to start with AI, because it obviously doesn't work. The AI cannot go out into the world and do investigating journalism. The news business are almost entirely an ad business now. Only a few sites do real investigative journalism and only with a few journalists. Many news businesses are now owned or majority controlled by billionaires and have the expected editorial biases that also don't really support hard hitting journalism.

skybrian 3y ago

A lot of in-depth news comes from organizations that are funded by paid subscriptions, which gets copied elsewhere. The better websites cite their sources when re-reporting it. So, I guess we can thank the subscribers? We’re all copying other people’s homework, especially in social media. How much of what you know about the world comes from personal observation? Most people haven’t traveled to most places.