AI writer vs traditional writer? Whose content will win in the age of artificial intelligence? Since ChatGPT made waves in late 2022, talks about AI have been abuzz. The potential for AI to replace traditional workers across many industries has also been discussed. With generative AI on the rise, would it actually be possible for AI writers to replace human writers?
In Episode 3 of The AI Purity Podcast, we interview one of Canada’s National Observer Journalists, Marc Fawcett Atkinson to discuss how AI text generation is potentially changing the landscape of journalism today.
Marc Fawcett-Atkinson’s Journey To Journalism
Marc’s journalistic focus began when he started covering water politics in New Mexico for a documentary. That sparked his interest in reporting and interviewing people as he now explores pressing issues about climate change, food systems, environmental issues, and the spread of disinformation.
After completing his master’s degree in journalism, he went on to join Canada’s National Observer where he would mostly work on covering climate change. His journalistic work would cover issues like plastic pollution and the petrochemical industry. At the core of his work, he explores the relationships between people and their social and physical environments.
When reporting about pressing environmental issues, Marc says it can be a bit hard juggling the balance between informing readers about critical issues without overwhelming them. He believes that environmental issues are an important way to use his skills in writing to highlight the environmental changes our world is facing today, this subtle way of activism informs and impacts people which is the moral standpoint he currently takes.
Journalism In The Age of Artificial Intelligence
When asked about how he views how AI is currently impacting the journalism industry and how AI is influencing the way articles are being researched and published, Marc has a two-point answer. First, Marc says, that AI has a direct impact on the labor aspect of journalism and second, the accuracy of reporting.
As a journalist, Marc doesn’t completely shun the idea of using generative AI tools like ChatGPT. He recalls trying to see what the application would generate and his concern was that the well-known and widely-used large language model chatbot would usually generate seemingly accurate text without citing its sources. “It [ChatGPT] gives me no references, so I can’t cross-check it”, Marc says. When prompted to write a news story, Marc recalls that the chatbot generated “consistently inaccurate and false” responses. So with the rise of generative AI, Marc says that skilled reporters are needed to verify these types of content in a way that is both clear and compelling.
As an expert at reporting disinformation, Marc says there is now a potential possibility for AI to be used to increase the scale at which disinformation is spreading. It’s not so much that AI itself produces new disinformation, it’s that generative LLM chatbots can be used to create fake news websites, blogs, or posts that are essentially part of the wider information ecosystem that journalism is a part of.
The Importance Of Discernment In Reading AI Writer-Made Articles
Content consumption in today’s digital age is at an all-time high, especially now that we can factor in how much more content can be generated with the help of an AI writer. It is now more than ever important to practice discernment when reading articles online. There is so much fake information that is circulating on the internet and Marc believes that it can be harder to filter out which information is valid because the instances of fake news are becoming more common.
Practicing discernment might not always come easy for most which is why you would sometimes need an AI text detector to find out whether you’re reading an AI-generated article or not. Read our past blog on “ChatGPT Detector: Finding The Best AI Detection Tool” and start practicing discernment today.
Keeping Up With Journalistic Standards
Articles written by AI might become more rampant but there is truly no replacing the high standards of reporting and journalism that are based on verification, facts, and ethical practices. It is possible for there to be AI-assisted writing present in the journalism space as long as there is transparency and verification according to Marc. He might even kickstart the writing process with a little help with ChatGPT, but he notes that when he gets into writing mode, everything is written with verified information.
An AI text generator to Marc is “one tool out of other tools in the toolbox but it can’t be kind of a substitute for your verification work.” Many AI tools can help the journalism industry, for example, Marc uses an application called Otter.AI which is a transcription service that accelerates the work he does. He says “It’s a very useful tool, but it’s not writing the stories for me.”
For Marc, the content journalists generate is “valuable and it’s intellectual property” which brings a lot of ethical implications whenever generative AI comes into play because it is essentially plagiarized work to cite it on its own. Some AI tools may be used to accelerate writing processes, but does AI writing have a space in journalism? Not so much.
AI Purity was born out of the goal to protect intellectual property and foster ethical AI use. With AI Purity’s precise AI text detection tool, journalists and readers can help upkeep journalistic standards amidst the misuse of AI generative tools.
Battling Disinformation
In the age of artificial intelligence, battling disinformation from the journalist side means bringing more awareness to the phenomenon. Human writers must continue to uphold the highest standards of journalistic work and keep putting out accurate information as a way to battle the spread of misinformation. Exposing that it’s happening will also make content consumers more wary of believing everything they read online.
The edge real writers have against even the best AI writer is the creation of original work. The power and uniqueness human journalists have is more than providing an objective perspective to reporting. “I’m writing from a certain position and I am a person. I’m not like an objective robot.” Marc shares. There is simply insight only journalists can have to share with their readers in a way that resonates on a human level that can never be replicated no matter the AI writing prompts fed into LLM chatbots.
An AI writer might try and emulate already existing human-written content, and to that, Marc says that there should absolutely be regulations in place. If an AI writer is used to generate content, platforms should be transparent about it. In doing so, it protects intellectual property and makes it illegal for AI to steal journalists’ work.
The Future Of AI and Journalism
When asked if AI would inevitably be part of the journalistic process and be integrated into newsrooms, here’s what Marc had to say, “I don’t think anything’s inevitable about AI because it’s a technology. And ultimately, we choose as a society whether to use that technology or not.”
Artificial intelligence integration is not only limited to generative AI, after all. Even Marc says, “I already use AI in my work all the time” but it doesn’t mean he uses generative AI to write his work. The important thing to learn here is that an AI writer will never completely replace human journalists. Not all AI tools in the context of journalism is bad as long as humans are controlling the technology and verifying content published with AI assistance.
Listen To The AI Purity Podcast
Marc Fawcett-Atkinson has more to share about how AI is slowly being integrated into newsrooms, how generative AI is used to disseminate disinformation, along advice to content consumers about how to discern between AI-generated content and human-written content.
Catch up on previous episodes to learn more about how AI impacts other industries besides journalism, like education. Watch Episode 2, “The Future of Collaboration: AI Technologies and Traditional Teaching Methods With Dr. William X Wei” to get caught up!
For accurate and reliable AI text detection, try AI Purity today so you can be protected from potential AI writer-made articles floating around on the internet. You never know you might fall victim to consuming fake news so use AI Purity today!