Among all the hype about generative AI, an over-the-top app that attracted my attention was NewsGPT. This claims to be a bias-free news channel with no reporters, and is an alternative to normal news. It uses advanced AI algorithms, random numbers, and deep learning to automate the process of producing news. This involves finding stories, research, putting together content, and news delivery through AI avatars, which are basically virtual news presenters.
NewsGPT says it is committed to eliminating fake news and slanted reporting by avoiding human bias and preconceptions. It can also give you personal news. If you let it know what you like, it will adapt the news content so you get articles that are relevant and meaningful to you.
Tomorrow’s news today
The NewsGPT team then came up with an even wilder offering, the world’s first news forecast. This claims to use predictive science in the same way as today’s weather forecasting.
The first forecast said it was reporting the results of football games in the USA still to be played. It seemed to me that there was a bit of a lack of information on how these reports matched the actual results. But as NewsGPT CEO, Alan Levy said: “The results are less important than the methodology, our present focus isn’t accuracy. It’s about merging deep learning and the world of news forecasting.” The team, which includes MIT mathematicians and Cambridge machine learning experts, aims to forecast sports results, market trends, Oscar winners and election results, among many others. Levy says that just as weather forecasts evolved from hocus pocus to vital decision-making tools, NewsGPT pictures a similar path for its news forecasts.
A horrible idea
Not everyone is impressed. Futurism magazine calls it “an absolutely horrible idea”. Another website, Annie Lab analysed dozens of NewsGPT articles and images and found that they contain factual errors, misleading images and plagiarism. They found that the report content was mainly from international news organisations like CNN and Reuters, but there was no recognition of sources. They called it “an array of AI-generated falsehood”.
Transparency is an issue. NewsGPT is not very forthcoming about the language models it uses. Language-generating AIs also have a tendency to hallucinate − to just make it up. They don’t know what words mean, they just predict what might come next in a sentence. Another issue is plagiarism. Journalists are starting to find that stories they have written are being extracted and mixed with other sources in NewsGPT. AI programs assemble articles by processing vast amounts of publicly available information; and even the best automated stories are basically news clips, with no new findings or original reporting. They can’t go out and report or ask questions, so their stories will never break new ground or come up with a scoop.
What it’s like
I decided to check out the NewsGPT website to see what this is all about. What I saw were some talking heads, the avatars, which were a little bit creepy; and a lot of the images looked like they came out of a comic book. I tried some of the articles. In one, the image of President Biden only had three fingers, and in another King Charles looked 120 years old. The writing could have been human-produced but it was bland and rigid, just like the AI-generated articles that we see nowadays − not very exciting. It was kind of robotic. It’s not supposed to be biased, but a report on a drone attack in Ukraine brought in some phrases like ‘tragically’ and ‘heartbreaking discovery’ which looked contrived to me. Normal news doesn’t have that kind of emotion.
I tried searching on South Africa but there wasn’t much. However, I thought a report on the green ammonia revolution was quite interesting, it pulled together most of the available information in a logical way. I think NewsGPT could be useful if something big happens. It could gather all the news reports into one place so you don’t have to read bits and pieces.
To my disappointment, the forecasting section was blank, I was really hoping for something interesting there.
Conclusion
NewsGPT is still a beta version, so it’s probably too early to draw any real conclusions. Humans bring invaluable insights, critical thinking, and investigative skills that AI can’t replicate. Human reporters can contextualise events, interview people with empathy, and detect subtleties that machines don’t see. Meanwhile, AI is challenging this model and redefining the future of journalism. I’m sure that it will adapt and evolve and find new opportunities. It seems to me that AI will complement human journalism, not replace it.
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