AI's potential impact on journalism is a double-edged sword

By Kassandra Darnell EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Artificial intelligence has become more prevalent now than ever before. I see articles in my social media and news feeds every day about the developments of AI,ranging from AI art to stories and school papers written by ChatGPT. But with the rise of AI comes concerns about how to use it properly and ethically, especially when it comes to using it professionally.

Recently, AI has been popping up in the journalism industry. In January, it was found that CNET had been publishing stories written by AI without clearly specifying if the articles had been written by human reporters, according to an article from The Verge. This caused controversy among both readers and employees of the publication and it begs the question: How will the growth of AI affect journalists? While I sometimes use an auto-transcription AI, called Otter.ai, to help transcribe interviews, I personally would not consider using AI programs to write articles. But not every journalist may be averse to using these kinds of programs.

IntheSpring2023editionoftheJournalism

&MassCommunicationEducator,JohnPavlik wrote an article titled: “Collaboration with ChatGPT: Considering the Implications of GenerativeArtificialIntelligenceforJournalism and Media Education,” which looks at how AI can be used in the industry. Pavlik explains that ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) platform that allows users to enter text prompts and then generate responses through machine learning engaging with the internet. Essentially,you can ask the AI a question and it will create a response based on the information available to it. Furthermore, AI is already regularly used in many media operations, including the Associated Press, primarily to aid in the reporting process,according to Pavlik. Pavlik’s article is unique in that he submitted prompts to ChatGPT to test its knowledge of the media and what it thinks about using AI in thejournalismindustry.Theresponsesgenerated included statements about how AI cannot be creative in the same way we consider humans to be creative and that AI can be used as a tool for reporters, allowing journalists to focus on other aspects of their work while the generator does the writing or information processing for them. Although the AI stated some may “argue that AI is not yet advanced enough to fully replace human journalists and media professionals”and that“it is likely to complement and enhance their workratherthanreplaceit,”Ithinkitisimportant to consider the implications of introducing this tool into the industry.

Using AI as a tool to help aid in the reporting process can be greatly beneficial to journalists. In a time when newsrooms are shrinking and