Microsoft has announced partnerships to provide generative AI services to news organizations and journalism schools. The tech giant’s initiative aims to improve the trustworthiness and efficiency of AI tools used in journalism. Microsoft is aligning with Semafor and other entities to explore the potential of AI while ensuring the production of reliable news content.
Enhancing Reporting with AI Insights
At the forefront of these collaborations, the agreement with news website Semafor introduces a section called “Semafor Signals,” poised to deliver a stream of breaking news stories crafted by journalists with the assistance of AI-powered research tools from Microsoft and OpenAI. Semafor journalists will rely on AI to support their research, followed by thorough review and verification of sources, summarization, and clear citation linking to original data.
Signals operates by leveraging AI to assist journalists in scouring myriad news sources, including non-English articles and reports from diverse geographical locations. The editors at Semafor curate and summarize key insights, while the underlying AI tools assist in expanding the journalists’ reach and presenting a comprehensive view on topics. Unlike traditional news reporting, Signals aspires to offer a more global and diversified perspective on stories. Editors are responsible for meticulously verifying source credibility, summarizing information, and ensuring original sources are appropriately cited in the coverage.
In addition to Semafor, The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York is set to usher journalists into a new era of reporting through a three-month program dedicated to generative AI utilization. Furthermore, The Online News Association and The GroundTruth Project are anticipated to leverage Microsoft’s AI services to enhance their journalistic practices. Another startup, Nota, plans to deploy AI journalism tools across over 100 newsrooms with backing from Microsoft.
Nota’s New Tool for Audience Engagement
Nota is on the verge of releasing PROOF, an assistive tool designed to provide real-time suggestions to journalists for optimizing content reach. PROOF will focus on improving various aspects of journalistic content, such as readability, search engine optimization, link integrity, and audience engagement.
These initiatives come in the wake of a legal challenge from The New York Times to both Microsoft and OpenAI. The lawsuit alleges unauthorized use of Times articles for AI model training, raising significant copyright concerns. Despite the lawsuit, Microsoft proceeds with its mission to harness AI technology to support the journalism sector in producing credible, high-quality news content.
Last Updated on November 7, 2024 10:39 pm CET
