Two years ago, Artificial intelligence (AI) was unable to generate a simple image of Will Smith eating spaghetti. Its failure became a popular internet meme that many took as a sign of AI’s incompetence. However, AI is now able to generate photorealistic images from a brief prompt and gather critical information on a certain topic within mere seconds. Browsing the internet for accurate news articles is now more inconvenient than simply opening ChatGPT. This has stimulated a conversation regarding the potential for AI to replace traditional journalism.
As AI advances, people are more likely to obtain information or news by asking ChatGPT rather than spending hours searching the internet for factually correct articles. It is less time-consuming. Additionally, AI is programmed to be non-biased, which further encourages the public to abandon articles written by humans.
However, AI lacks an important core aspect of traditional journalism: human interaction. Artificial intelligence is unable to interview people or offer insight into an individual’s emotional responses. For instance, AI may be less appealing when covering tragic events because it is incapable of taking a sensitive approach to the topic. It also lacks the ability to gather new information; AI draws its conclusions from pre-existing publications.
Although AI may be impacting traditional journalism, it is currently too robotic to completely replace it. Artificial intelligence lacks the ability to empathize with humans, meaning that it is not reliable when gathering new information that deals with sensitive topics. It is more likely that AI will simply change journalism methods.
