One old-school former editor of mine, John Marquis, when prophesying doom and gloom, will occasionally end a blog post with “So glad I’ll be out of it by such-and-such a year.”
Another, Ken Thompson, now no longer with us in earthly form, might well conclude “So glad I AM out of it.”
I have in mind the gradual takeover over of us humans by artificial intelligence (AI) and in particular its insidious intrusion into what passes for journalism these days.
I recently read a story in a weekly newspaper that struck me as rather odd. Even by modern standards, it came across as a piece of quite exceptionally sloppy reporting and poor writing, so much so that I felt compelled to show it to a fellow retired journo.
He dusted down his investigative hat, did a little bit of research and discovered that the person by-lined on the offending piece was, wait for it, an “AI-assisted reporter.”
Additionally, so he read: “Some of (name’s) articles are being drafted with the assistance of AI tools such as Chat GPT. However, a journalist or editor always decides what content to cover and always reviews this content before it is published.”
Talk about intriguing. The image sprang to mind of a reporter bashing out his story with a robot sat beside him, but of course that wouldn’t be the case. (I guess?!)
Seriously, I’d love to know just how the two intelligences – real and artificial – work together.
Or perhaps I wouldn’t. After all, you know what we always used to be told: “You can’t believe what you read in the newspapers.” And especially so, one might add now, if you suspect there is something “artificial” (fake?) about it!
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