Microsoft Partners with News Organizations to Implement AI in Content Production
Technology giant Microsoft has announced a series of agreements with news organizations to implement generative artificial intelligence tools in content production. One of the notable collaborations is with the Semafor platform to create a global source of breaking news named Signals. Using tools from Microsoft and its subsidiary Open AI, journalists will be able to utilize the firm’s famous ChatGPT to generate news content.
The goal of Signals is to support journalists, not replace them, Microsoft maintains. Semafor announced that the product responds to the changes in the digital media landscape and the opportunities and risks posed by artificial intelligence. Signals draws from a variety of media sources and summarizes their content into small publications, sourcing from outlets such as The Times, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, CBS News, and the Financial Times.
Many of these sources are paid for, while Semafor Signals offers the content for free. Microsoft’s collaborations with various media and organizations come at a time when the company, together with OpenAI, is facing a lawsuit from the New York Times for unauthorized use of its content to train artificial intelligence technologies.
The agreements come as Microsoft works to assist organizations in identifying and perfecting procedures and policies for responsible artificial intelligence use in news gathering and business practices.
Various agreements have been formed with organizations such as Semafor, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York, the Online News Association, GroundTruth Project, and Nota, among others. Each of these organizations will have access to Microsoft experts, technology, and support throughout the year and will share the results of their projects with the industry.
Microsoft’s goal is to support thriving and sustainable newsrooms with the technology they need to inform the world. The use of artificial intelligence presents both opportunities and threats for traditional newsrooms, and Microsoft seeks to reassure about its risks with a speech in defense of journalism and journalists.
The company emphasizes the importance of fact-based news in maintaining healthy democracies and fighting misinformation and threats to democracy. It also emphasizes that at the center of all these commitments are the journalists themselves and that their goal is to support journalists in their mission rather than replace them.