After the release of its Bard AI, tech giant Google is working on an AI journalist to replace human writers online. Despite a number of issues with Google’s current AI, the Google AI journalist has already been pitched to a number of outlets.
In a report by The New York Times, it was revealed that Google has started to show off the technology to executives around the world. Currently dubbed Genesis, the Google AI journalist is said to replace writers and assist editors.
Google reportedly believe that its AI journalist tool is a “responsible” tool, despite the fact that its already available Bard tool is woefully inadequate and dangerous to Google Search.
At the time of writing, Google Bard, even with access to the internet, is rife with misinformation, so much so that Google employees attempted to fight against its release. While it can write in a believable way, it still doesn’t actually understand the information it’s taking in, leading to unreliable information.
Furthermore, Bard, like all AI neural nets, suffers from dataset biases that stop the software from being impartial. This has been seen in software such as ChatGPT, where AI characters powered by the software has parroted alt-right conspiracy theories such as holocaust denial.
The use of artificial intelligence software in the newsroom has gone very poorly over the past year. MSN started using AI journalists at the end of 2021, leading to stories filled with misinformation. Furthermore, websites such as CNET have also used AI to awful results, also creating factually incorrect articles.
In a recent example, G/O Media executives have forced the use of AI into its websites, despite mass editor pushback. An article written by AI listed the chronological order of Star Wars movies, a very well documented list, and still put the movies in the wrong order. The story is currently at the top of Google Search for that query.
While AI regulation has started to be discussed in terms of generative art, AI in the writing space has been left alone. The ongoing WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes may end up having an effect on AI in the writing industry, and a number of lawsuits regarding the tech are currently underway, but as of yet, writers are stuck on a sinking life raft with no support. And to think I liked my job.