Google has been quietly reaching deals with some publishers to use new generative ai tools to publish stories, according to ai/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:a report;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> in advertising week. The deals, which are reportedly worth tens of thousands of dollars a year, are apparently part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), a six-year program it funds. and other resources for newsrooms. But the move to generative ai publishing tools would be a new and likely controversial step for the company.
According advertising week, the program is currently aimed at a “handful” of smaller publishers. “The beta tools allow under-resourced publishers to create aggregated content more efficiently by indexing recently published reports generated by other organizations, such as government agencies and neighboring news outlets, and then summarizing and publishing them as a new article,” Adweek reports. .
However, it's unclear exactly how much publishers are paid under the deal. advertising week He says it's a “five-figure sum” per year. In exchange, media organizations supposedly agree to publish at least three articles a day, a weekly newsletter, and a monthly marketing campaign using these tools.
Of note, the program's editors are apparently not required to disclose their use of ai, nor are aggregated websites informed that their content is being used to create ai-written stories on other sites. The ai-generated copy reportedly uses a color-coded system to indicate the trustworthiness of each section of text to help human editors review content before publishing.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement to advertising week The company said it was “in the early stages of exploring ideas to potentially provide ai-enabled tools to help journalists with their work.” The spokesperson added that artificial intelligence tools “are not intended to and cannot replace the essential role that journalists play in reporting, creating and verifying their articles.”
It's unclear what Google gets out of the deal, although it wouldn't be the first tech company to pay newsrooms to use proprietary tools. The deal has some similarities to deals Facebook struck with publishers to create live video content in 2016. The social media company made headlines when it paid publishers to power its nascent video platform and dozens of media outlets. communications opted to “pivot to video” as an outcome.
Those deals later evaporated after Facebook discovered there had the number of visits that content obtained. The social network its live video offerings shortly after and has since modified its algorithm to recommend less news content. The media industry's “pivot to video” cost hundreds of journalists their jobs, technology/archive/2018/10/facebook-driven-video-push-may-have-cost-483-journalists-their-jobs/573403/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:by some;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:7;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> Dear All.
While the GNI program appears to be much smaller than what Facebook attempted nearly a decade ago with live video, it will likely bring new scrutiny to publishers' use of generative ai tools. Publications like and ai-generated-writers” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:Sports Illustrated;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:9;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> have been widely criticized for attempting to pass off articles written by ai as written by human staff.
