Artificial intelligence (AI) is already redefining several industries. The technology is improving increasingly fast between chatbots, image generators, video generators, and even music generators. For some, this poses a threat to existing jobs, but is it the case? In many industries, it helps improve things with automated processes replacing repetitive tasks. Such is the case when a crypto casino uses it to automate prize drops and data analysis. Perhaps it could also find its use in journalism and help improve it. Why Some Journalists Fear AI AI’s use in journalism is a scary thought for those who know about AI hallucinations. Sometimes, AI chatbots have been known to give inaccurate information when presented with a question outside of their training. This is explained by the mandatory need of the AI to answer any query from users, even if it can’t find the answer by itself. This phenomenon can be blamed on the companies that created the technology and forced it to answer no matter what. As AI improves, these hallucinations become rarer, and it’s possible that with enough training, they may disappear altogether. Of course, there are already online media outlets using AI extensively to pump low-quality articles and flood Google with SEO-optimized content. However, this has existed long before AI; the bots simply replaced underpaid workers. There’s also an ethical problem. AI has a dark side and is used by hackers, something a journalist’s moral standard immediately questions. However, it comes from a wrongful perception of what AI is. It’s just a tool, and it doesn’t have morals; it simply executes. For a quick comparison, it’s like if journalists never used printers because they can also be used to print propaganda. How AI Can Be Useful in Journalism When thinking about AI, most people think about a chatbot writing the text for the journalist. However, it’s not the best way to use AI. Here are some insights on how AI can help journalism get better. Using AI as a Search Engine Research is the most significant part of the journalist’s work. He must find reliable sources and compare them to ensure what he says is trustworthy information. Even though the internet makes it faster than when Bernstein and Woodward worked for the Washington Post, it’s still a drawn-out process. Thus, resorting to AI to browse thousands of sites in a matter of seconds and show compiled results can be incredibly helpful. However, it requires learning about prompt engineering and carefully reviewing what the bot chooses by checking the sources it can provide. Using Automation to Save Time Many journalistic tasks take a long time without helping to get the most truthful information. For instance, translations and transcriptions become more trustworthy when powered by AI. Google was already pretty good at translating, and YouTube auto-generated captions have come a long way, but AI beats them. AI can also be tasked with data entry assignments automatically, freeing more time for investigation. Using AI’s Analytics to Gather the Audience In today’s world, the journalist’s voice depends on the traffic websites can gather. AI can help with the SEO of the site and drive more people toward the articles. Nobody’s buying papers any more, and having a digital platform generating traffic and revenue has become primordial. It can help find the keywords of the site’s niche and help fill the content gap to stay relevant in search engines. Challenges AI Brings to Journalism It shouldn’t be understated that a wrongful use of AI can lead to various issues. In a sense, journalists must act as watchdogs to guarantee the plurality and veracity of the information. It’s a concept integral to the function of the person delivering news to the people, yet too often overlooked. Journalists must adapt to the presence of this new technology and develop expertise in detecting what is AI-generated or not. At the moment, companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google have biased AI models, which make them easier to detect in the opinions they can express or sentence construction. However, it may not be the case in a few years, and awareness is the best preparation. Letting AI Do The Job is The Wrong Way As previously mentioned, AI is a tool, and like a hammer can’t strike a nail without a hand, AI can’t be accurate by itself. However, it’s an incredibly powerful asset journalists can use to make their pieces faster and more accurate if they learn how to use it. Those who rely on AI to simply write articles and don’t check them are inevitably destined to be spotted and lose all credibility. It’ll accelerate since AI is constantly evolving and recent studies from Stanford and Berkeley show the answers becoming “dumber” in some areas over time. Ethical use of AI is possible, but there’s a dire need for universal guidelines every journalist can apply to ensure articles remain trustworthy.