There is a novelty (the umpteenth, these days) that will cause much discussion: Google has pulled out of the cylinder a tool, called Genesis, capable of producing news articles. And he's quietly offering it to the media: I'm not talking about sites like Futuro Prossimo, of course, but about giants like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.
Even tougher times for journalists?
No but
Commenting on the news on this circumstance (curiously just spread from the New York Times. Or from a part of the editorial team?), Google points out predictably that Genesis is not here to steal the jobs of journalists. Rather, there in Palo Alto they imagine him as a personal assistant, ready to lend a hand on some tasks, leaving journalists more time for other activities. In other words: the standard motivation.
How true is that? Not everyone is convinced, even in the panorama of big editorials. Some (probably those not yet interested in the "test", or maybe even those left out) raised more than an eyebrow, pointing out how precious and complex the work behind the production of news is.
It's not the first time
On closer inspection, Genesis already had predecessors. In the recent past, publications like CNET or BuzzFeed have already tried artificial intelligence tools, but often with inaccurate results and plagiarism problems.
And clearly the reaction of journalists has not been the best. The concerns (and anger) of insiders seem destined to increase progressively.
Bad news?
The entry of a giant like Google in this field could accelerate the adoption of these technologies, and cause a cascade effect with unimaginable results (or yes? We have known for some time that in a few years the Net it will be saturated of content generated by artificial intelligence).
Google can insist all it wants, and we too can tell ourselves that an AI cannot replace the heart of journalism (and that Bard, say, is improving quite a bit but he still has to eat a little bit of bread to keep up).
The truth, dear friends and readers, is that we are at a crossroads. On the one hand, innovation and technology that promise to make everything more efficient. On the other, the very essence of news, journalism and dissemination.
As always, technology is just a tool, it's up to us to decide how to use it: but this could become a survival choice.
