Today, it’s almost impossible to avoid AI. Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence is being integrated into EVERYTHING! AI is being integrated into self-driving cars, voice assistants, and even fast food drive-throughs, but one must ask the question: where do we draw the line? When it comes to AI software like ChatGPT, many are concerned about its impact on jobs, and journalism isn’t an exception. As AI software like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Journey become more capable, journalists from across the globe ask, “Is AI a threat to our jobs?”
Now, whether you believe AI is dangerous for jobs or not, it’s evident that AI has become an essential tool among journalists. Many reporters use it to help them with things such as summarizing stories or generating a first draft for an upcoming article. Programs like ChatGPT can now even analyze large amounts of data in a matter of seconds!
AI could even be helpful in smaller local newsrooms or even school newspapers like our beloved Shield. AI can offer headline suggestions, ideas for articles, or to an extent help with grammatical correction, which can help save student journalists valuable time while they juggle their grades, sports, or other extracurricular activities.
However, this convenience can come with a heavy cost, as AI becomes more capable, we could see an increase in traction from companies who are willing to cut corners or save a few extra dimes, which could result in said companies choosing AI-generated articles over human journalists. Back in 2023, the popular media company BuzzFeed said in a statement that it would focus on utilizing AI more to generate content, and to very little surprise, this announcement was followed by dozens of journalists being laid off, this incident alongside others just like it, sparks concerns over job security in the industry.
But what do actual journalists think? Many opinions are surprisingly mixed, some stating that AI is dangerous to the jobs of millions of journalists worldwide, while others believe AI could be a way to modernize newsrooms.
I believe the simple solution would be coexistence, not competition with AI. One of the major flaws of Artificial Intelligence is its lack of emotion and its risk of plagiarism and bias, as AI models are often trained on datasets that may contain bias or misinformation. So journalists must learn to adapt alongside AI and focus on aspects of journalism that can not be replicated, at least not easily.
So it’s important for journalists to find a sort of balance, because a journalist who wants too much, risks losing absolutely everything, but the guy who wants too little, might not get anything at all, because as AI inevitably becomes more powerful, journalists must figure out how to use it without losing the principles in which makes journalism human, keeping this balance helps modernize newsrooms by offering a helpful way for journalists to improve their work, while also keeping the raw human-like aspects of Journalism alive.