Google Creating ‘Genesis’, An AI Tool To Generate News Content For Reporters
According to The New York Times, Google is said to be working on an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that would aid news publishers in crafting news articles. The search giant has allegedly reached out to prominent news organizations such as The Washington Post, News Corp (which owns The Wall Street Journal), and even The New York Times.
The tool, internally called Genesis, can consume information about recent events and generate news based on that information. Google believes it can be used as an “assistant” for journalists by automating certain tasks, which can save them time.
It is said to be able to distance the news industry from the “traps of generative artificial intelligence”.
However, the few executives who saw Google’s pitch described the AI tool as “unsettling,” while two others said the tool pushes the production of accurate and artistic news into more mainstream territory.
“Together with news publishers, especially smaller ones, we’re early on exploring ideas that could provide A.I.-enabled tools to help their reporters do their jobs,” Google official Jenn Crider told The New. York Times.
He added: “Simply put, these tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the central role journalists play in reporting, creating and fact-checking articles.”
This development comes at a time when news agencies around the world are debating whether or not to incorporate artificial intelligence into their workflow. However, as The New York Times points out, organizations like the Associated Press (AP) have already embraced AI and are using it to write reports on corporate earnings.
It would certainly be interesting to see how Google positions the tool and how it manages to differentiate it from its PaLM 2-powered AI chatbot, Google Bard. Also, as the debate about whether AI will replace jobs heats up — especially in journalism and publishing — Google may have to develop new ideas for using generative AI and promote Genesis more as an aid than a replacement.
