Developments surrounding AI are moving at lightning speed. That’s not news. Artificial intelligence is slowly entering the editorial offices of media brands. Sometimes as a tool, sometimes as an editor, and sometimes there is no human involved in the entire editorial team. In this article we look at good and bad examples.
Pantha Rhai was launched in Hamburg in April 2023. The first magazine in the world that was completely compiled by artificial intelligence. Using AI prompts, it took two people just five days to create the 136-page magazine. Text, image and design.
The first AI magazine
Pantha Rhai was launched by Arian Okhovat and Jörg Salamon, founders of the Creative AI agency in Hamburg of the same name. They used prompts for ChatGPT and Midjourney to create the magazine with the aim of showcasing the potential of AI. “We wanted to show how AI can be used in product innovation and prove that the tools are advanced enough,” Salamon said in an email interview in WNIP.
Man and machine work together
Salamon has the ambition to push the boundaries within publishing. He also pushes the limits in the collaboration between man and machine. When asked whether AI will ever replace the editing process, he answers: “AI won’t replace you, but people using AI will. No one knows what direction this will take us.”
The first issue of the magazine is available as free digital download and also as a limited edition of 500 copies. The second edition of Panta Rhai has now been published.
News without editing
Another example: The Illustrated Artificial Intelligence. This is a news site on which several news items appear every day. The site is a fully automatic AI generated based on existing news sources. ChatGPT is used for this, among other things. For the initiators of Illustrated Artificial Intelligence, creating this news site was also an experiment to investigate what is possible with rapidly advancing technology. Involved in the site are Merien ten Houten (former founder Ilse Media) and Bart Brouwers, Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Groningen. In an interview with Villamedia Van Houten said: “This site will not expose a benefits affair, but it can identify, describe and publish news. And create an image to go with it.”
In the interview in Villamedia, Van Houten explains that the software behind The Illustrated Artificial Intelligence draws inspiration for news from social media and Google. The AI works with tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E. The AI first looks at which topics receive a lot of attention and then searches for sources. Based on the information found, a story is written and an image is created.
Argument on the editorial staff of Sports Illustrated
Now the collaboration with AI at Panta Rhai and the Illustrated Artificial Intelligence is on top of it. But that is not always the case. It was a small riot last November in the editorial office of Sports Illustrated. Editors stopped their work after publishing a disturbing article on the platform Futurism. The article published there detailed how Sports Illustrated had several articles written by AI. The articles were provided with non-existent author profiles, including an AI-generated, lifelike portrait.
Journalistic integrity
The editors sought redress from management, who denied that they supported the decision to allow AI-generated content on the site. It could be a misunderstanding with one of the partners Sports Illustrated works with: the articles written by AI were product reviews from an affiliate partner.
The editors and the union were not satisfied with this explanation and canceled the work. They stated: ‘If it is true, then this practice violates everything in the field of journalistic integrity, which we believe in. We deeply regret being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers and we demand answers and transparency from management. Immediately after publication of the article in Futurism, all AI-written content was removed from the site.
Cost savings through AI
Sports Illustrated isn’t the only media brand ‘collaborating’ with AI. At the beginning of 2023, Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced that AI will have a place in the newsroom. Initially it would concern relatively ‘easy’ content, such as quizzes. Peretti emphasized that the output would be held ‘against a high journalistic benchmark’.
Peretti received a lot of attention for his ambition. Buzzfeed was one of the first media brands to openly flirt with the idea of ChatGPT in the newsroom. In interviews he warned of the dangers: “For some publishers it will only be about cost savings. AI can create large quantities of SEO articles, albeit of a lower quality than what journalists can do, but at a tenth of the cost.”
Futursime now reports that Buzzfeed has also fallen for the above scenario and hundreds of articles have been published, with almost the same SEO structure. Peretti’s journalistic yardstick appears to be falling rapidly.
Tips for editors
As an editor, are you curious about what you can do with AI? Then the advice is to experiment with the possibilities of artificial intelligence. There are plenty of good examples of ChatGPT as an editorial tool. For example, the AI can check articles for spelling and typographical errors, summarize articles (for example for a newsletter, a catchy lead or a social media message), it can make suggestions for headlines and it can make suggestions to optimize texts for search engines (SEO). But watch out. The technology is not flawless and errors lurk. So make sure that, as an editor, you always check the output.
Please note copyright
Another important point. If you ‘feed’ texts to ChatGPT (for example to summarize), these texts will be saved. The same texts, or parts thereof, can then be ‘served’ to other users. So pay close attention to the provisions regarding copyright and ensure that you set ChatGPT in such a way that your texts remain for your own use only.
Working with AI for images and image editing
AI also offers opportunities for image editors and designers. You can have illustrations created via a written ‘prompt’ with tools such as Midjourney or Dall-E. Adobe and Canva have also integrated AI into their services. For example, you can edit photos with AI via Adobe Photoshop. You can resize photos and have them ‘fill in’ the voids with Generative Fill. Or you can generate illustrations in Illustrator or Canva based on a written text or prompt. Want to experiment with AI-created illustrations? Then take a look at Midjourney or Dall_E. You can also use these AI illustrations to brief photographers or human illustrators.
Be transparent
The most important tip for AI in the newsroom is actually very simple. Think of it as a testing ground, where you can experiment a lot. This way you can experience for yourself how AI can support you in your work. But once you start publishing AI-generated content – whether it is text or images – be transparent with your readers or users. Like the illustration above. I made this in Midjourney with the prompt: ‘Make an illustration of people in an office working on laptops, but only one employee is a robot, make the illustration in landscape’.
Training AI in the editorial office
Team Bladendokter is organizing a training about AI in the editorial office on Monday, March 4, 2024. This day (from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) will give you a lot of inspiration about the use of AI. As a participant, you will be introduced to all kinds of practical tools and can experiment hands-on with ChatGPT and MidJourney. The training is intended for editorial staff who work in the media or communications. Knowing more? Click here: Training AI in the editorial office.