The Microsoft logo in its New York store in a file image.CARLO ALLEGRI (Portal)
The technology giant Microsoft announced this Monday a series of agreements with news organizations to implement generative artificial intelligence tools in content production. Among the various collaborations, the alliance with the Semafor platform stands out, which creates a global source of breaking news that it calls Signals and in which journalists use tools from Microsoft and its subsidiary Open AI, the company that developed the famous ChatGPT . “Our goal is to find ways to support journalists, not replace them,” Microsoft claims.
“Signals responds to the profound and ongoing changes in the digital media landscape and the news moment in the post-social media era, as well as the risks and opportunities that artificial intelligence brings,” Semafor announced when introducing the new product . Semafor Signals seems to use various media as sources and summarize its content in small publications. This Monday, for example, news summaries will be broadcast quoting sources such as The Times, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, CBS News and the Financial Times, among others. Many of these media are paid, while Semafor Signals offers this content for free.
Microsoft's agreements with various media and organizations come at a time when the company, along with OpenAI, is facing a lawsuit from the New York Times over the unauthorized use of its content to train artificial intelligence technologies.
“Microsoft is launching several collaborations with news organizations to introduce generative AI. In a year when billions of people around the world will vote in democratic elections, journalism is critical to creating healthy information ecosystems, and our mission is to work with the industry to ensure newsrooms this year and next year to innovate to deliver services in the future,” the Satya Nadella-led company said in the statement announcing its collaboration.
The tech giant ensures that its alliances help various organizations identify and perfect procedures and policies for the responsible use of artificial intelligence in intelligence gathering and business practices. His idea, he says, is to help “educate a new generation of reporters in the best uses of AI and find ways in which AI can help create efficient business practices and build sustainable newsrooms for generations to come.”
Various agreements
The agreements are of different nature. In the case of Semafor, it will facilitate access to credible local, national and global sources and the translation of their content. For its part, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York (CUNY) will invite experienced journalists to a free program to explore ways to integrate generative AI into their work and newsrooms in a hybrid and highly interactive three-month program long. This artificial intelligence journalism lab is led by Nikita Roy, a data scientist, entrepreneur and host of the podcast Newsroom Robots, who explores the applications of AI in journalism.
Microsoft has also reached agreements with the Online News Association (ONA), which has launched a program to help journalists and newsroom managers navigate the changing AI ecosystem. GroundTruth Project, which sends local journalists to newsrooms around the world, and Nota, a startup dedicated to bringing high-quality AI tools to newsrooms to improve their operations, now expanding to more than 100 newsrooms with support from Microsoft has grown. Nota will soon launch a new tool called Proof that will provide journalists and editors with advice on how to better reach their audience with their content through readability, SEO analysis, links, and other features.
Each of these organizations will have access to Microsoft experts, technology and support throughout the year and are committed to sharing the results of their projects with the industry. “By working directly with newsrooms, universities, journalists and industry groups, we will help these organizations use AI to grow audiences, streamline time-consuming newsroom tasks and create sustainable business operations.” “Our goal is to “to support thriving and sustainable newsrooms with the technology they need to fulfill the essential function of informing the world,” the company says.
The use of artificial intelligence is both an opportunity and a threat for traditional newsrooms. Microsoft is trying to reassure people about its risks with a speech in defense of journalism and journalists, although one possibility is that much content previously produced by editors is now generated by artificial intelligence tools.
“To remain competitive, local, national and global news organizations rely on the ability to responsibly innovate with new technologies. The survival of fact-based news is inextricably linked to healthy democracies, thriving communities and civic participation,” the company says, noting that journalism is critical to combating misinformation and threats to democracy.
“At the heart of all of these commitments are journalists themselves. There are no healthy news organizations without journalists who know their communities and their issues, who have close relationships with leaders in government and civic life, and who know how to reach their communities. “This work is difficult, and our goal is to find ways to support journalists in this mission, not to replace them,” he concludes.