THEOn October 7, 1779 a letter appeared in Berrow’s Worcester Journal. “To the printer,” wrote one disgruntled reader. “I take the liberty of informing you and the public that the account of a melancholy accident which happened to a poor man at Evesham, which was introduced in your last paper, is entirely without foundation.”
Reports of a man falling into a vat of boiling beer turned out to be wildly exaggerated, posted on the back of an anonymous tip. But now the magazine, which claims to be the world’s oldest surviving newspaper, says it has a cutting-edge new method to help journalists get out of the office and check their data: artificial intelligence.
The magazine, which was first published in 1690 and is now a freesheet containing content from the Worcester News, is one of several publications hosted by the UK’s second largest regional news publisher to recruit ‘AI-assisted’ journalists ” to report local news.
Newsquest, which publishes more than 200 titles including the Glasgow Herald, Brighton and Hove Argus and Lancashire Telegraph, has recruited eight “AI-assisted” reporters to various newsrooms across the country in the past year.
AI reporters use an in-house copywriter tool based on ChatGPT technology, a developed chatbot that pulls information gathered from text on the Internet. Journalists enter common but essential “trusted content” – such as minutes from a local council planning committee – which the tool turns into concise publisher-style news reports.
With the AI-assisted reporter churning out bread-and-butter content, other reporters in the newsroom are freed up to go to court, meet a councilor for coffee or attend a village fete, Worcester’s editor says News. Stephanie Preece.
“AI cannot be at the scene of an accident, in court, in a council meeting, visit a grieving family or look someone in the eye and say they are lying. All it does is free journalists to do more,” he says. “Instead of avoiding it or fearing it, we’re saying AI is here to stay – so how can we harness it?”
He adds that Newsquest’s tool does not generate content – a trained journalist puts information into the tool, which is then edited and modified if necessary by a news editor – and will, they hope, avoid ChatGPT’s reputation for being inaccurate.
In a recent interview with the Press Gazette, the CEO of Newsquest, Henry Faure Walkersaid the introduction of an AI-assisted role had proved invaluable to the Hexham Courant in Northumberland in September, when the town suddenly found itself at the center of a national news story when the Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian’s Wall was felled by a vandal.
“The AI reporter could pretty much hold down the fort for the week, filling the paper, and let the other reporter go out and do really good investigative stuff, video and follow the story, which we couldn’t have I am doing. We will proceed carefully,” he said.
Jody Doherty-Cove, head of AI at Newsquest, says he understands the anxiety about AI in journalism, but insists there are multiple safeguards in place at Newsquest, including extensive training and a new code of ethics.
Recently, a journalist received the team’s first response to a freedom of information request generated by AI – about the cost of tea and biscuits provided at council meetings. A reporter came up with the idea, but the AI created the letter and found the email address to send it to.
Doherty-Cove predicts that soon the use of artificial intelligence as a newsroom tool will be widespread and uncontroversial. “In the future, the term AI system reporter will be as redundant as the term Internet-assisted reporter sounds now,” he says. “The Internet has helped journalists find information and create richer stories, and artificial intelligence offers these benefits as well.”
In June, the Guardian published its generative AI principles pledging to use the technology only with care and caution, and in September it blocked OpenAI from using its content to power AI products such as ChatGPT.
And the New York Times this week sued OpenAI and Microsoft for what the suit claims is an attempt “to take advantage of the Times’ massive investment in its journalism, using it to build substitute products without permission or payment.” In response, OpenAI said it “respects the rights of content creators and owners” and was “surprised and disappointed by this development” after starting talks with the publication.
Local reporters – increasingly thin on the ground, overstretched and underpaid – need all the help they can get. In the last 12 months alone Reach, publisher of the Liverpool Echo and Manchester Evening News as well as the Mirror and Express titles, has cut 800 roles in several bruising rounds of cuts.
Reach sparked controversy in the spring when it revealed it was testing the use of artificial intelligence for news writing and had published its first articles, including “Seven things to do in Newport”, written using technology. But its chief executive, Jim Mullen, said the job cuts were not related to artificial intelligence and told reporters they should not fear being replaced by machines.
However, the number of reporters – and local publications – continues to decline. According to figures from the Charitable Journalism Project, there are probably fewer local newspapers in Britain now than at any other time since the 18th century. The long-term decline has accelerated rapidly: more than 320 local titles closed between 2009 and 2019 as advertising revenue fell by around 70%.
If Berrow’s Worcester Journal is not to join their ranks, it will have to maintain its capacity for reinvention, says Preece. “Every newspaper editor knows that they are just a watchdog for a short period of time and all you can do is the best for that title. But to do that you have to embrace change, you have to move with the world.”