AI may soon write articles for journalists with a new Google product that is being tested

Tech giant Google is reportedly testing an AI-powered tool to write news stories and has pitched it to The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal’s owner, News Corp according to The New York Times.

Internally codenamed “Genesis”, the tool serves as a personal assistant for journalists by taking in information to generate a news copy.

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In the report, Google states that it sees the tool being used responsibly as it would allow a journalist to have more time for other tasks through the automation of news copies.

However, executives found the idea unsettling when the tool was pitched to them with many noting that AI-generated articles seem to disregard a journalist’s effort when producing factually sound news stories, according to The New York Times.

In a statement from a Google spokesperson to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Google likened the new tool to assistive tools on its other application such as Gmail and Google Docs.

AI-enabled tools would provide journalists with different options for headlines and styles of writing to boost productivity rather than completely replacing their role, the spokesperson continued.

Google has also promised to continue working in collaboration with news publishers as it develops products using generative AI and to prioritise approaches for the tech giant to send valuable traffic to publishers.

Recently, it was found in a survey by Capgemini Research Institute that 70% of Singaporean consumers, compared to 73% of consumers globally, trust content created by generative AI. This spans across many aspects of life, from financial planning and medical diagnosis, to even relationship advice.

It was also found that 70% of consumers globally use generative AI tools to seek recommendations for new products and services and that 65% of Singaporean consumers, compared to 64% globally, are open to making purchases based on these recommendations.

The survey found that consumers who use generative AI frequently are most satisfied with chatbots, gaming, and search use cases, however, generative AI platforms are also being used for personal, day-to-day activities and consumers seem to trust AI for these activities as well. 

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