Just months after AI tools like ChatGPT have become widely available, half of all newsrooms worldwide are already using them, according to new research, and yet journalists don't see chatbots spelling the end of their careers.
Artificial intelligence platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT are taking root in the media, going on a survey by the World Association of Publishers (WAN-IFRA), in which 49% of respondents said their newsrooms were deploying the bots.
"The primary use case is the tools' capability to digest and condense information, for example for summaries and bullet points," according to the survey report, which sought to allay fears that lazy hacks are already using AI to churn out news.
The report was published in late May ahead of warnings – including from the heads of OpenAI and Google DeepMind – that AI could make humanity extinct. Less ominous sound bites – that AI could cause the extinction of many jobs – have been doing the rounds for years.
But whatever about humanity being extinguished, the survey suggests journalists do not see so-called generative AI as fatal to their careers, despite the churn and turmoil and wrought across the media industry since the spread of the internet in the 1990s.
Of those surveyed, 70% expect AI "to be helpful for their journalists and newsroom." The main downsides to AI, the journalists said, are concerns about accuracy and plagiarism, landmines that can prove career-enders for journalists.
Only 38% said "job security" was a worry, with 82% expecting their roles to "change slightly or significantly."
And while glass-half-full types might point out that more than 50% of newsrooms are not yet using platforms such as ChatGPT, WAN-IFRA described the 49% uptake as "quite remarkable" given they became widely available only in late 2022.
