Humans Optional

Media tech veterans from southern California are readying release of an AI tool that can continuously churn-out automatically generated news — sans human oversight.

Essentially, by employing advanced algorithms, natural language processing, data gathering and analytics, the tool — dubbed ‘WELLS’ — will be able to  autonomously research, verify, and write news articles across multiple platforms at unprecedented scales, according to a press release from maker HeyWire AI.

News of the coming product launch coincides with increasing numbers of Web sites that are using AI-automated news tools to rewrite and regurgitate news found elsewhere on the Web — denigrated by some as ‘Pink Slime’ journalism.

Observes Jeffrey S. Klein, an advisor to HeyWire AI, and a former senior executive at the Los Angeles Times:  “As the needs of the (news) industry have changed, and its use of technology has evolved, newsrooms must adapt and learn to use tools such as WELLS to enhance their approach to the business and remain competitive.”

Ideally, HeyWire envisions users of WELLS employing human editors to review every story produced by the AI tool before it hits the Web.

One hopes.

In other AI-generated writing news:

*In-Depth Guide:  86 ChatGPT Plugins and How to Prompt Them: ChatGPT users looking to soup-up the tool’s performance can click here for what may be the mother of all ChatGPT plugin guides.

Some cool ChatGPT additions for writers include:

~BizToc, a curator of business news

~FiscalNote, a curator of policy news, regulatory updates and analysis

~KeyMate, for customized Web browsing

~Ndricks Sports, a curator of sports news

~VoxScript, a search tool for YouTube and similar Transcripts

*Windows Copilot: Because Even PCs Need a Wingman: Windows Copilot — an in-development AI assistant promising to help with virtually every aspect of Windows — also promises to feature an AI writer.

Based on the same tech used to power ChatGPT, the AI writing facet of the coming assistant will enable users to auto-generate ideas, summaries and emails.

Microsoft began testing CoPilot with 20 of its enterprise-level customers in March — and now has plans to expand access to that test to members of its ‘Windows Insider’ program.

*ChatGPT: Soon to Be a True ‘Know-It-All:’  Any query to ChatGPT will soon include up-to-the-minute access to info on the Web.

That upgrade will represent a major boon to users of the wonder tool, which currently only has knowledge of the world up to September 2021.

ChatGPT Plus users, who pay $20/month, are expected to get first access to upgraded ChatGPT — with access to users of the free version of ChatGPT coming next, according to writer Katherine Hamilton.

*Invasion of the Story Snatchers: Pink Slime News Content Mills Continue to Multiply: News content farms using AI writing to regurgitate news from legitimate news organizations are continuing to multiply.

News content grading service NewsGuard reports that at least 125 Web sites are now churning-out regurgitated news produced with little or no human oversight.

The unreliable, low-quality journalism generally found on these sites has been characterized by Poynter as Pink Slime journalism.

*Opera Browser Hits New High Note: AI-Assistant Coming Soon: Opera is promising to add a sidebar with an AI assistant to its browser soon, which will include automated writing functions.

Dubbed ‘Aria’ and based on ChatGPT tech, the coming tool will also offer up-to-the-minute access to Web info.

Observes writer Emma Roth:  “The introduction of Aria builds upon some of the AI features that Opera already has.

“In February, Opera added ChatGPT into its sidebar, allowing you to generate summaries of the Web page or article you’re visiting.

“The browser also rolled-out AI prompts, a feature that offers a shortcut to various AI tools that change depending on the page you’re on — or the text you highlight.

“This lets you do things like summarize text, create a tweet based on what you’re reading, or get an explanation about a specific concept.”

*Money Talks: Google-Backed ChatGPT Competitor Snares $450 Million: AI firm Anthropic — which makes tools that compete with ChatGPT — is flush with new funds.

Observes writer Kyle Wiggers:  “Notably, tech giants, including Google (Anthropic’s preferred cloud provider), Salesforce (via its Salesforce Ventures wing) and Zoom (via Zoom Ventures), participated in the financing.”

Other investors include Sound Ventures, Menlo Ventures and other undisclosed VC parties, according to Wiggers.

Adds Wiggers: “It’d seem to signal a strong belief in the promise of Anthropic’s tech, which uses AI to perform a wide range of conversational and text processing tasks.”

*Courting the Future: Legal Powerhouse Thomson Reuters Getting an AI Upgrade: Legal info giant Thomson Reuters is currently updating its platform with AI.

Included in that makeover will be the integration of Microsoft’s CoPilot — an AI assistant — into the Thomson Reuters system.

Observes writer Bog Ambrogi: “As other legal technology companies have rushed to release products using generative AI, one of the largest –Thomson Reuters — has been unusually silent.

“It broke that silence slightly two weeks ago, when it announced plans to invest some $100 million a year in AI, including incorporating generative AI across its flagship products in the second half of this year.”

*Pixel Perfect: News Imaging Getting a New Industry Standard with AI-Powered Photoshop:  While dozens of AI imaging tools are already on the market, it’s quite another matter when the industry standard — Photoshop — announces an AI upgrade.

Essentially, the refinement — dubbed Firefly and still in beta mode — integrates AI into a familiar tool that’s used by the lion’s share of news and content creators the world over.

Observes writer Farhad Majoo: “The software allows anyone with a mouse, an imagination and $10 to $20 a month to — without any expertise — subtly alter pictures, sometimes appearing so real that it seems likely to erase most of the remaining barriers between the authentic and the fake.”

*AI Big Picture:  Nuclear Fall-Out: Should AI Be Regulated Like Atomic Weapons?: While the maker of ChatGPT is pushing to have AI regulated like a nuke, others are less sure that’s the right path.

Observes writer Chris Taylor:  “There is a kind of ‘trust and safety’ contest alongside the AI arms race between Microsoft, ChatGPT’s main ally and Google.”

All told, the take-away from that contest “makes no sense,” Taylor argues.

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–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.