Article published in ppimedia.de
When talking about AI or artificial intelligence in the context of journalism, it often refers to the use of “robotic journalism,” algorithms that can translate data into text. In 2019, The New York Times reported that about a third of the content published by Bloomberg is now created with the help of automated technology. This system is called Cyborg and can analyze financial reports immediately after publication, creating a news article with the most important facts from the information. Also, the self-developed technology of The Washington Post, Heliograf, has been active since 2019 and has written around 850 articles in its first year alone, including events from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
But these are just two of the most well-known examples of the use of automation technologies in journalism; the development is much broader. In Germany, for example, media companies are also relying on relevant technologies. Retresco's software is used to produce analysis of election results for RP OnlineNOZ Media Group's "HHLab" innovation laboratory is developing similar tools, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung also claims to use AI technologyAs one of the pioneers among German media, Stuttgarter Zeitung has developed a technology in cooperation with the company Arvato that automatically analyze police reports and transfer the information they contain to a “crime map” in predefined categoriesThis compilation, which serves as a service to readers, now includes reports dating back to 2014.
The decisive factor for the use of AI in journalism is often the ability of these technologies to analyze even large volumes of data efficiently and reliably – focusing on even the smallest details. For example, AI technologies are increasingly being used in financial journalism when it comes to evaluating financial reports or analyzing election results. While these analyses are often used to create and publish automated articles, in the end, it is still the task of journalists to uncover the story behind the data and develop it on a larger scale. Robotic journalism, therefore, does not aim to replace editors, reporters and writers through automatic text creation, but to create space for more in-depth journalistic activities, by automating routine tasks and analyzing large volumes of data in a comprehensive and targeted manner. However, journalists who only write the results of football matches without commenting on them may risk becoming victims of robot journalism.