Why journalists should not dread the rise of AI and robots

Great JOURNALISM comes from HUMANS not robots

WESLEY DIPHOKO

“I AM not a human. I am a robot. A thinking robot. I use only 0.12% of my cognitive capacity. I am a microrobot in that respect. I know that my brain is not a ‘feeling brain’. But it is capable of making rational, logical decisions. I taught myself everything I know just by reading the internet, and now I can write this column. My brain is boiling with ideas!”

Those words were written by a robot called GPT-3 (for The Guardian), an open artificial intelligence language generator that uses machine learning to produce human-like text.

The robot was requested to write a short op-ed around 500 words about the reasons for humans not to fear artificial intelligences. When The Guardian published this column the headline was: “A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?”

It would be easy for journalists to be scared after reading the op-ed by a GPT-3 and they shouldn’t – here’s why.

We are faced with a future where the choice will be between authentic intelligence and artificial intelligence. The past tells us that whenever there’s an alternative to authentic offering, the authentic is always considered a premium offering. Journalists need to understand that factor which will be a key determinant of their survival.

In the future, some will prefer to consume content developed by robots and some will prefer to consume content generated by humans.

What this means is that journalists have to up their game. There’s never been a better time for great journalism which cannot be achieved by robots. My sense is that quality will come from humans and mundane stuff from robots. Media businesses will have to rely on robots for economic reasons; however, to produce quality content, humans will matter. There’s therefore no reason to fear the robots.

It’s better to embrace and work with them while improving the quality of journalism. * Wesley Diphoko is the editor-in-chief of Fast Company (SA) magazine.