The New York Times is green on the use of AI for its product and its editorial, saying that internal tools could possibly write a social copy, referencing titles and a code.
In an email to the staff of the editorial room, the company announced that it will open training on AI in the editorial room and launched a new internal AI tool called Echo to staff, SEMAFOR learned. Times also shared documents and videos as part of editorial do’s and does not do so for the use of AI, and has shared a series of AI products that staff could now use to develop products Web and editorial ideas.
“Generative AI can help our journalists discover the truth and help more people understand the world. Automatic learning already helps us to bring back stories that we could not otherwise, and a generative AI has the potential to further strengthen our journalistic capacities, “said the editorial directives of the company.
“Likewise, Times will become more accessible to more people through features such as digital voice[d] Articles, translations in other languages and uses of the generative AI that we have not yet discovered. We consider technology not as a magic solution but as a powerful tool which, like many technological advances before, can be used at the service of our mission. »»
The company said it approved a number of AI programs for editorial staff and products, including the Github Copilot programming assistant for coding, Google’s Vertex for product development, notebooklm, chatexplorer du NYT, Some Amazon AI and Openai non chatgpt products from Openi The New York Times Commercial Account (only with the approval of the company’s legal service). Times also announced that it had built Echo, an internal beta summary tool to allow journalists to condense articles, briefings and interactive.
The document encouraged editorial personnel to use these AI tools to generate SEO titles, summaries and audience promotions; suggest changes; Think about questions and ideas and ask questions about the journalists’ own documents; engage in research; and analyze the own documents and images of the Times. In a compulsory training video shared with the staff, the Times suggested using AI to ask questions to ask the CEO of a startup during an interview. Times Guidelines also indicated that he could use AI to develop quiz, social copy, quotes cards and FAQs.
In a series of training documents, editorial directives have presented possible use cases for journalists, including prompts such as:
- How many times has it been mentioned in these episodes of Fork?
- Can you revise this paragraph to make it tighter?
- Imagine that you are publishing this Times article on Facebook. How did you promote it?
- Summarize this article Times in a concise and conversational voice for a newsletter.
- Can you offer five optimized titles on research for this article Times?
- Can you summarize this piece written by Shakespeare?
- Can you summarize this report of the federal government in simple terms?
However, the company has pointed its use of AI, noting the potential risks for the violation of copyright and the exposure of sources.
The company has told the editorial staff that they should not use AI to draft or revise an article considerably, enter documents protected by copyrights of third parties (in particular confidential source information), use the ‘AI to get around a paid wall or publish images or videos generated by the machine, except to demonstrate technology and with appropriate labeling. The company said that certain unprecedented AI tools, if it were poorly used, could give up the right to protect the sources and notes from the Times.
Times refused to comment, but note that he has publicly published his editorial directives on AI on his site. In the past year, the newspaper worked with an internal pilot group to explore how AI could be used in the editorial room.
Times’ decision to start using AI tools arrives at a particularly notable time for the company. He remains involved in a legal battle with OPENAI in court, alleging that the company has formed its models on the content of times without authorization, amounting to a massive copyright violation. Microsoft, the largest OPENAI investor, said Times tried to stifle technological innovation.
Despite the enthusiasm of the Times for the internal use of the AI, some employees expressed skepticism. Addressing staff during the weekend, some have estimated that their teams may not initially use AI for fear that it can inspire laziness or big titles or other outings, and could generate inaccurate information that n ‘were not useful. There is also a certain animosity between large AI companies and employees. Some staff members were thwarted when, by responding to a Semaor report on a strike for weeks by Times Tech employees last year, the CEO of the company of IA Perplexity proposed to replace the striking workers with AI tools.
