Newsweek, a 90-year-old journalistic institution, has been extensively using AI in its newsroom. The company first updated its editorial standards to allow the use of text-generating AI tools in September 2023, believing that these tools can help journalists work faster, smarter, and more creatively. Six months into this shift, Newsweek’s optimism about AI remains unshaken.
A recent job listing for a live news editor position stated that the successful candidate would lead a team of reporters using AI and other tools to enhance their reporting. Newsweek’s new executive editor, Jennifer Cunningham, believes that the difference between newsrooms that embrace AI and those that shun it will become evident in the coming months and years.
Newsweek sees AI as a productivity booster, allowing reporters to focus on journalistic output rather than process-oriented tasks. The company has no plans to cut jobs in favor of automated tools. Journalists are required to disclose any use of AI to their editors. However, while Newsweek includes a link to its AI guidelines at the end of its articles, it does not include explicit AI disclaimers on AI-assisted posts.
Cunningham emphasized the importance of making sure that readers are clear about the use of this technology in the content they are viewing or reading. However, it’s unclear how useful Newsweek’s general “we might be using AI here” disclaimer is to that effect.
Read more at: futurism.com