The technology giant Microsoft announced this Monday a series of agreements with news organizations to implement generative artificial intelligence tools in content production. Among the different collaborations, the alliance with the Semafor platform stands out to create a global source of breaking news, which it has named Signals, in which journalists, using tools from Microsoft and its subsidiary Open AI, the firm that created the famous ChatGPT. “Our goal is to find ways to support journalists, not replace them,” says Microsoft.
“Signals responds to the profound and continuing changes in the digital media landscape and the timing of news in the post-social media era, as well as the risks and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence,” Semafor announced when presenting the new product. Semafor Signals seems to draw from different media as sources and summarize its contents in small publications. This Monday, for example, what it broadcasts are news summaries who cite sources such as The Times, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, CBS News and financial times, among many others. Many of these media are paid, while Semafor Signals offers this content for free.
Microsoft's agreements with different media and organizations come at a time when the company, along with OpenAI, faces a lawsuit filed by the New York Times for the unauthorized use of its contents to train artificial intelligence technologies.
“Microsoft is launching several collaborations with news organizations to adopt generative AI. In a year when billions of people will vote in democratic elections around the world, journalism is essential to creating healthy information ecosystems, and our mission, in collaboration with the sector, is to ensure that newsrooms can innovate to deliver service this year and in the future”, said the company led by Satya Nadella in the statement announcing their collaboration.
The technology giant ensures that with its alliances it is helping different organizations identify and perfect procedures and policies to use artificial intelligence responsibly in news gathering and business practices. His idea, he says, is to help “train a new generation of reporters in the best uses of AI and identify ways in which AI can help create efficient business practices and help build sustainable newsrooms for generations to come.” .
Various agreements
The agreements are of a different nature. In the case of Semafor, it will facilitate access to credible local, national and global sources and the translation of their content. For its part, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York (CUNY) will invite experienced journalists to a free program to explore ways to incorporate generative AI into their work and their newsrooms in a hybrid and highly interactive three-month long. This journalism laboratory with artificial intelligence will be directed by Nikita Roy, data scientist, businesswoman and presenter of the podcast Newsroom Robots, which explores the applications of AI in journalism.
Microsoft has also reached agreements with the Online News Association (ONA), which has launched a program to help journalists and newsroom managers navigate the changing AI ecosystem; GroundTruth Project, which sends local journalists to newsrooms around the world, and Nota, a startup dedicated to introducing high-quality AI tools into newsrooms to help improve their operations, which has now expanded to more than 100 newsrooms with the support of Microsoft. Nota will soon launch a new tool called Proof, which will give journalists and editors advice on how to better reach audiences with their content through readability, SEO analysis, links and other features.
Each of those organizations will have access to Microsoft experts, technology and support throughout this year and has committed to sharing the results of their projects with the industry. “By working directly with newsrooms, universities, journalists and industry groups, we will help these organizations use AI to increase audiences, streamline time-consuming tasks in the newsroom and create sustainable business operations. “Our goal is to support thriving and sustainable newsrooms with the technology they need to perform the essential function of informing the world,” the company says.
The use of artificial intelligence is an opportunity and a threat for traditional newsrooms. Microsoft tries to reassure about its risks with a speech in defense of journalism and journalists, although one of the possibilities is that many contents that were previously produced by editors will now be generated by artificial intelligence tools.
“Local, national and global news organizations depend on the ability to responsibly innovate with emerging technology to remain competitive. The survival of fact-based news is inextricably linked to healthy democracies, thriving communities and civic participation,” the company says, noting that journalism is essential to combating misinformation and threats to democracy.
“At the center of all these commitments are the journalists themselves. There are no healthy news organizations without journalists who know their communities and their issues, who have deep relationships with leaders in government and civic life, and who know how to reach their communities. “This work is difficult, and our goal is to find ways to support journalists in this mission, not replace them,” he concludes.
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