A range of computer systems can now produce sentences or even long stories that read as if a journalist wrote them. I played around with one — ChatGP,T a mind-boggling experience.
Wonderfully provocative and insightful -- as usual. But wondering whether there are really two discrete issues here -- AI and misinformation. Think our recent history with Fox and lotsa blogs suggest that people are quite capable and comfortable producing and sharing misinformation. Whether AI is any more likely to do so is an open question to me. I could envision a fact-based AI system that was less likely to do so.
jim is right on the button with everything connected to journalism, but there is one phrase in this essay that gives me pause: ..."the needs, desires and wishes of their audiences." AI is going to help journalists with this and hence, make their efforts more relevant. I think we have seen where this can lead in the latest dustup over Fox News, the medium that has elevated pandering to an art form. These people KNEW Donald Trump was wrong about the theft of the election, but were so afraid of losing audience they pushed the lie. I am wary of anything that would detach reporters from the obligation to put truth, no matter how uncomfortable, ahead of partisanship. I worry that having this kind of connection to an 'audience," even if fictional, will only push the willing more deeply into the pits of partisanship!
Wonderfully provocative and insightful -- as usual. But wondering whether there are really two discrete issues here -- AI and misinformation. Think our recent history with Fox and lotsa blogs suggest that people are quite capable and comfortable producing and sharing misinformation. Whether AI is any more likely to do so is an open question to me. I could envision a fact-based AI system that was less likely to do so.
jim is right on the button with everything connected to journalism, but there is one phrase in this essay that gives me pause: ..."the needs, desires and wishes of their audiences." AI is going to help journalists with this and hence, make their efforts more relevant. I think we have seen where this can lead in the latest dustup over Fox News, the medium that has elevated pandering to an art form. These people KNEW Donald Trump was wrong about the theft of the election, but were so afraid of losing audience they pushed the lie. I am wary of anything that would detach reporters from the obligation to put truth, no matter how uncomfortable, ahead of partisanship. I worry that having this kind of connection to an 'audience," even if fictional, will only push the willing more deeply into the pits of partisanship!