LONDON: Media network News Corp Australia has been producing 3,000 articles per week with the help of generative artificial intelligence, the group’s executive chair has revealed.
Michael Miller said during the World News Media Congress, held last month in Taipei, that the stories covered weather, fuel prices, and traffic conditions, according to the online trade website Mediaweek.
But the organization’s spokesperson confirmed that editorial decisions for the AI-generated articles are made by working journalists.
News Corp’s Data Local unit, which has four staff led by data journalism editor Peter Judd, is responsible for producing the articles.
The AI-generated stories are distributed nationwide across the company’s 75 “hyperlocal” mastheads, including Fairfield, Lismore, Penrith, Cairns and Bundaberg. There is no disclosure on the page that the stories are written using AI, as they are reviewed by journalists and carry their bylines.
The News Corp. Australia spokesperson said the articles provide only service information for readers of local mastheads. For instance, AI is employed to generate stories such as “Where to find the cheapest fuel in Penrith.”
“For some years now, we have used automation to update local fuel prices several times daily, as well as daily court lists, traffic, weather, death and funeral notices,” the spokesperson said.
“I would stress that all such information and decisions are overseen by working journalists from the Data Local team.”
Miller said at the conference that hyperlocal mastheads were responsible for 55 percent of all subscriptions, according to a report by the World Association of News Publishers.
Australia’s newsrooms are increasingly using AI, and media outlets such as the national broadcaster the ABC are looking into how the technology might improve the accessibility of their content.
The ABC is especially interested in AI applications for translation, recommendations, text-to-speech delivery and personalization.
Meanwhile, the commercial network Nine Entertainment has yet to create a formal AI policy.
