This recap of some interesting developments around generative AI was written by a human.
I say that because of a report this week that Google is working on a new AI tool called Genesis that’s supposed to be able to write news stories. The company has pitched the tool to a handful of major news organizations, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, as a “personal assistant” or “helpmate” for journalists that can automate some tasks, the Times reported. Genesis is able to “take in information — details of current events, for example — and generate news content,” the Times said, citing “people familiar with the matter.”
In an emailed statement to CNET, Google acknowledged it’s exploring how AI could aid news publishers but didn’t give specifics on the tools it’s testing. “In partnership with news publishers, especially smaller publishers, we’re in the earliest stages of exploring ideas to potentially provide AI-enabled tools to help journalists with their work,” said a Google spokesperson. “These tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating and fact-checking their articles.”
Still, people who’ve seen Google’s pitch called it “unsettling,” the Times said, because it “seemed to take for granted the effort that went into producing accurate and artful news stories.” Another concern: Google, which decides which news stories users see at the top of their search results, could give preference to stories that use Genesis.
To be sure, many publishers, including the Post, the Journal, The Associated Press, NPR, Insider and CNET, are experimenting with genAI tools to see how they might assist reporters by creating everything from headlines to story summaries to routine recaps of sports events and election results. AI tools could help media organizations, which have