OpenAI has joined forces with media conglomerate Axel Springer. They’re billing it as a way to enhance journalism with artificial intelligence (AI), albeit questions may surface about whether this really is the future of news we want.
The plan? To funnel news content from Axel Springer’s brands directly into ChatGPT.
OpenAI introduces news in real-time, with Axel Springer content
Under this partnership, ChatGPT users get to read summaries of global news from Axel Springer’s brands, which include Politico and Business Insider
Other notable European outlets like BILD will also be proliferated on the platform.
RelatedPosts
“ChatGPT’s answers to user queries will include attribution and links to the full articles for transparency and further information,” OpenAI announced.
It sounds convenient: an initiative that aims to “enrich users’ experience with ChatGPT by adding recent and authoritative content on a wide variety of topics.” But, it begs several questions: can AI truly understand the nuances of journalism?; what happens to the human touch in news curation?; and, perhaps, most importantly, are there safeguards in place to limit biased content?
This isn’t just about AI dishing out news snippets. The content, some of which is normally paid, will come with links to full articles. This raises another point of scepticism: is this a clever ploy to drive traffic to Axel Springer’s properties under the guise of AI integration?
Axel Springer’s CEO, Mathias Döpfner, talks up the potential of AI in journalism.
“We are excited to have shaped this global partnership between Axel Springer and OpenAI – the first of its kind. We want to explore the opportunities of AI-empowered journalism – to bring quality, societal relevance and the business model of journalism to the next level,” he said.
Brad Lightcap of OpenAI echoes this, touting the benefits for publishers.
“This partnership with Axel Springer will help provide people with new ways to access quality, real-time news content through our AI tools. We are deeply committed to working with publishers and creators around the world and ensuring they benefit from advanced AI technology and new revenue models,” he added.
