Irish Examiner view: AI creeps into the publishing realm

'Wired' magazine is establishing plans and policies on how it will use the technology

In the US, some publishers are experimenting with using AI to cover public meetings which might otherwise go unreported because of staff shortages.

Many claims are made about the abilities of artificial intelligence. And some of them are accurate. Others will become true with the passage of time and experience.

Wired, the magazine for tech hipsters which likes to declare itself as the publication “where tomorrow is realised”, is readying itself for the future by establishing its plans and policies on how it will use the technology. 

It won’t publish editorial text either in long form or as snippets that are written and edited using AI. Nor will it use images or videos generated by AI due, in part, to the risk of breaching copyright.

But it will use AI to suggest headlines or social media posts and to generate story ideas for a human being to consider.

Having some declared rules for the reader to understand is good policy and it is a convention that is likely to increase.

But it is a simple step and greater challenges lie ahead. In the United States, some publishers are experimenting with using AI to cover public meetings which might otherwise go unreported because newsrooms don’t have enough boots on the ground.

In the pilots, the application has taken notes and produced short, summary stories.

Its memory is beefed up by feeding in other sources, including topic background from previously published reports.

This work has been experimental. But, as with Wired’s style protocols, such is the speed of technological advance that you can add the escape clause phrase “for now". 

The time may not be that far off when editors will be obliged to give AI a byline for every item it contributes.