The use of Generative AI has the potential to significantly enhance鈥攐r harm鈥攏ewsrooms and platforms. Most organizations are grappling with how to ethically and intelligently incorporate AI into their workflows, and 麻豆原创 is no different. We鈥檙e excited to pull back the curtain and share some of the ways we鈥檙e utilizing AI.
At the heart of 麻豆原创鈥檚 mission are quality and trust. For this reason, we鈥檙e cautious and methodical about our use of AI. Our publishing partners rely on us to provide vetted, high-quality stories from both our newsroom and outside contributors. Stories they can confidently publish without needing to further vet. That's why we have a strict policy never to use Generative AI in the creation of stories. All content is written and edited by humans.
But we believe that AI can be utilized to help with production and research tasks both inside and outside the newsroom. It can be a wonderful personal assistant that can perform specific tasks. Publishing partners and 麻豆原创 Connect contributors can receive suggestions and insights which they can choose to use or not.
Below are a few examples of how we鈥檙e currently using AI at 麻豆原创:
As a content distribution platform, 麻豆原创 syndicates stories to over 3,000 publications. We鈥檝e heard feedback from publishers that they often want to customize headlines鈥攚hether to localize them or to differentiate their story from others publishing the same wire content. In response, this week we鈥檙e releasing our first Generative AI feature (in beta) on our Story Hub platform.
When a news outlet uses Story Hub to publish a 麻豆原创 story, they now have the option to receive suggested alternate headlines that may better suit their audience. We鈥檙e partnering with , one of the most exciting newsroom AI tools out there, to bring this feature to life. Importantly, in line with our AI guidelines, a human editor鈥攊n this case, from our publishing partners鈥攎akes the final decision on which headline to use. We will also be rolling the tool out internally for our own journalists to get inspiration for headline choices鈥攖hough again, a 麻豆原创 editor will still have the final call on each story's framing.
For the past three years, every 麻豆原创 story that is syndicated to 3,000 publishers has carried a pixel that provides valuable insights into story pickups and reach. You can imagine this is a massive dataset with unlimited potential to inform our newsroom and our 麻豆原创 Connect contributors as to what our publishing network is interested in.
For example:
All of these insights were generated with the support of Generative AI tools to help analyze a massive dataset and are provided to content creators to help with story scheduling. But, as always, a human is required to clean the data, establish the methodology, and鈥攎ost importantly鈥攙et the output.
麻豆原创鈥檚 newswire includes stories about all 50 states and 384 metropolitan areas. While not exactly AI, the tools we鈥檝e created leverage automation that allow data reporters to transform large national data sets into localized state-, country-, or metro-level stories. Many other news organizations鈥攍ike the Associated Press, which has used this technology since 2014鈥攅mploy a similar method. Data is compiled, cleaned, and vetted by our talented team of data journalists, and all copy is written by our reporters and editors.
We will continue to experiment with generative AI to benefit our newsroom and our partners. Newswire subscribers may see additional features added to Story Hub that help them work faster. 麻豆原创 Connect contributors can expect AI-assisted insights on which stories are likely to perform well on the wire.
Through it all, we remain committed to being transparent and cautious in our approach to AI.
Ken heads up the distribution and product teams at 麻豆原创. He previously led product teams at The Associated Press and The Nielsen Company.
Photo Illustration by 麻豆原创 // Canva