OpenAI, the company behind the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT, has partnered with two major local news publishers - Gannett and McClatchy - to provide AI-generated content. The goal is to utilize OpenAI's powerful GPT-3 language model to create localized articles, allowing outlets to expand coverage specific to their communities.
250 plus local news brands including the Arizona Republic and Miami Herald, Gannett will use GPT-3 to turn structured data into short-form summaries on topics like local sports game recaps and real estate transactions.
The AI-generated text will then be edited and published by human editors and reporters.
McClatchy, publisher of the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star and nearly 30 other newsrooms, will also experiment with using AI to transform datasets into draft stories. The company aims to use this content to supplement existing coverage and free up journalists' time for deeper investigative reporting.
By generating localized articles from data, OpenAI's technology can assist understaffed newsrooms in better covering granular events relevant to their readers. However, the partnerships have sparked debates around creative ownership and the role of automation in journalism.
OpenAI acknowledges understandable concerns over attribution and job impacts. The company insists AI-generated text will be transparently labeled and that the deals are about enhancing, not replacing, human reporting.
This aligns with OpenAI's goals to develop AI that benefits society. The announcement comes as interest in AI content generation skyrockets.
Tools like GPT-3 and ChatGPT can create human-like text on virtually any prompt, with wide-ranging implications. It remains to be seen exactly how publishers will implement this technology and if audiences will embrace AI-assisted news.
