*A new academic study reveals artificial intelligence generated writing and similar tools are currently being used to completely eliminate human journalists at some news outlets.

“The use of artificial intelligence in news production shows cases with a total replacement of direct human intervention during newsmaking,” the researchers observe.

“Machines have moved from being a support to be those responsible for performing the task,” the researchers find. “Journalism without human journalists is already possible.”

(Free access to the paper is presented in Spanish and English.)

In other AI-generated writing news:

*AI Chatbots Now Handle 30% of Customer Service Chats at Sprint: Telecom goliath Sprint says 30% of customer support chats — previously handled by human writers — are now automated with chatbots driven by AI-generated writing.

“Chat use-cases help customers resolve their questions efficiently, effectively and at a good experience rate, says Rob Roby, chief digital officer, Sprint.

That allows human reps to handle tougher, more complex customer service questions, he says.

Sprint trains the AI chatbots using chat histories drawn from previous exchanges between Sprint customer service representatives and customers, according to Roby.

*Fake Comments for News Articles, Courtesy AI: Chinese researchers have developed new AI software that auto-generates fake reader comments below online news articles.

The research is slated for presentation at a top AI-generated writing conference in November, EMNLP-IJCNLP.

“While there are risks with this kind of AI research, we believe that developing and demonstrating such techniques is important for understanding valuable and potentially troubling applications of the technology,” the researchers observe in their paper.

*78% of News Outlets Investing in AI: Most news outlets surveyed say they will be investing in AI tools in coming years to give their newsrooms added edge, according to a new study.

Canny news editors understand how AI and machine language can augment the efforts of their busy beat reporters, not replace them, according to the article – sponsored by Dataminr.

Dataminr is an AI-driven news monitoring company, which leverages AI to surface important news stories from the Web.

Interestingly, 85% of editors surveyed believe they’ll need more journalists in the newsroom as AI proliferates throughout the industry, according to the article

*Most Marketers Skittish About AI Tools: Only 26% of marketers surveyed are confident they’ll be able to become skillful with AI-marketing tools, according to Demandbase and Wakefield Research.

“There remains a strong divergence between the urge — and the confidence — of innovators to help forward-thinking organizations adapt to AI,” the researchers observe.

Currently, the marketing industry is seeing an onslaught of new AI solutions. These tools enable marketers to auto-generate written content, auto-personalize a newsletter for each subscriber and automate similar writing tasks.

*The Top Ten Media Companies in AI Journalism: Mohamed Abdulzaher, a media consultant for the United Arab Emirates, offers his take on the 10 companies leading the transition to AI-driven journalism.

“Over the next ten years, we will find media organizations relying on artificial intelligence journalism to analyze Big Data, use data extensively in their reports, store all information and ‘archive’ what we can call “The World Future Data,” Abdulzaher observes.

*Siemens Uses AI Authoring Tool to Standardize Writing: Industrial manufacturer Siemens is using an AI authoring tool from Acrolinx to standardize its technical writing.

Siemens writers rely on the tool to ensure specific terms in Siemens tech documents are used consistently. The app also ensures that overall language use remains consistent across all of Siemens’ technical documents.

“We need a tool that is capable of pre-structuring content,” says Michael Straeter, a project lead in tech documentation at Siemens. “Our long-term goal is to use AI to turn the Big Data that we receive from within the company into intelligible information.

“There aren’t many tools out there that have the potential to do this. That’s why the decision for Acrolinx was easy.”

*Embrace AI, Stay Relevant as an Investigative Reporter: Investigative journalists need to embrace AI tools to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving media landscape, according to Marina Walker Guevara.

She’s director of strategic initiatives at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Specifically, Guevara says investigative journalists need to become comfortable using AI to quickly sift through millions of images, audio and other digital files.

Such tools enable them to efficiently zoom-in on the data they need for investigative reporting.

*Big Wins in AI-Generated Travel Writing: Holland America is currently using AI-generated writing to auto-generate suggested trip itineraries for its cruise ship passengers.

The solution uses AI to match the personal profile of each voyager with travel adventures that are available to them during the cruise.

The result: A personalized suggested trip itinerary for each passenger.

Another successful application of AI-generated writing in travel are chatbots used by Look-to-Book. These AI tools guide customers through their travel reservation choices online.

*Journalism in the Age of AI: The Digital Journalism World Summit 2019 kicks off October 7 with a panel discussion on how AI is impacting the profession.

*Also on RobotWritersAI.com — Evergreen Article:

*AI-Created Newsletters: On The Cheap

–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.