Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to news on April 7, it is reported that the US news industry is regarding the AI chatbot as a new threat to its existence. They worry that people will think that the article abstracts provided by chatbots are good enough to stop visiting their websites, resulting in a loss of readers and advertisers. However, some media executives believe that despite the potential threats, there are opportunities. They are trying to take the lead in industry change to adapt to the evolution of the way readers access information.

The following is the translation

When you ask Microsoft's Bing chat robot whether former US president Donald Trump has been indicted, its answer will scare media executives.

The robot's three-sentence summary seems to be useful. it not only provides links to news media such as CNN and the Washington Post, but also asks kindly, "is there anything else I can do for you?"

But for this generative artificial intelligence technology, media executives see it as a new existential threat. They worry that people think the article abstracts provided by chatbots are good enough to stop visiting their websites, so that chatbots take away their readers and advertisers and repeat the early days of Internet innovation. They are looking for ways to deal with it, including blocking content, enacting regulations, or making readers pay for their work.

Some publishers are trying to stop AI chatbots from grabbing their articles. They can edit a file called robots.txt in an attempt to prevent robots from accessing their website.

It is not clear whether these measures will work. If AI chatbots collect information in the same way as search engines, then "publishers should be able to control which parts of their content are visible and may be included, while marking other content as restricted content," said Francesco Marconi, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press and now a co-founder of artificial intelligence company AppliedXL. However, he also said: "the actual operation of these artificial intelligence systems is still unclear."

Some media executives say they cannot protect their content because new chatbots get information from search results and publishers are afraid to exclude articles from search engines. Most importantly, they know very little about how this fast-growing technology works.

Dietrich von Clayden, senior vice president of public affairs at Axel Springer SE, the German media giant, said: "what happens inside the machine is not transparent." Axel Springer SE owns online publications such as Politico and Insider.

Since artificial intelligence research company OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November last year, AI chat robots have attracted the attention of the business community. In recent weeks, Microsoft has launched a chat robot that uses OpenAI technology, and Google has released a system called Bard.

Unlike typical search results that show a fragment of an article or a link to a website, artificial intelligence services can generate longer responses.

Google said in a statement that it was using Bard to "learn and collect feedback from various stakeholders, including news publishers" and would "continue to give priority to enabling us to send valuable traffic to news publishers and support a healthy and open online ecology".

A Microsoft spokesman also said that the company intends to work with the news media. "We have been working with publishers and have great respect for their content."

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

Media executives are trying to assess the potential impact of AI chatbots on business. Over the past three weeks, the industry group Digital Content Next, whose members include the New York Times, News Corp. and Bloomberg, has held more than 10 meetings on the issue. Some executives say AI chatbots may force them to rethink their strategies to attract readers and rely more on other methods, such as sending newsletters.

Publishers also believe that, despite the potential threats, there are opportunities. They think artificial intelligence can help cut costs and improve the efficiency of the newsroom. "this improves the efficiency of journalists and enables them to focus on news creation, investigation and commentary," Dietrich von Clayden said. "

Media executives are pushing for changes to copyright laws, saying companies such as Microsoft and Google should be required to prove their right to use articles in artificial intelligence. One outstanding legal question is whether AI chatbots comply with the "fair use" provisions of copyright law.

Dan Check, chief executive of Slate magazine, said: "if you train with other people's content and reduce the value of the content, then I think it is unfair to use it."

Many publishers also want a piece of the advertising revenue generated by AI chat robots from news-generated summaries. At an investor meeting in March, News Corp. chief executive Robert Thomson (Robert Thomson) said his company had begun talking about charging artificial intelligence companies. "obviously, they are using our exclusive content, and obviously we deserve some compensation," Thomson said. "

The newsroom faces not only the financial threat brought by artificial intelligence, but also the challenge of chatbot spreading false information, which makes it more difficult for journalists to win public trust.

There is a long and complicated history between publishers and search engines. For years, print media have complained about digital media companies, which have stolen their readers by creating titles that are easy to find in Google searches and striving for a top spot in search results. Today, many newsrooms are training journalists on how to write headlines suitable for search, because it is still an important source of traffic.

Today, news executives are trying to take a step forward in industry change to adapt to the evolution of the way readers access information. "there is a new audience that consumes more content than any other group." Marconi said. "and the audience is not made up of humans, but made up of machines."

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