Mirror and Express owner publishes first articles written using AI

theguardian.com:

The owner of the Daily Mirror and the Express has published its first articles written using artificial intelligence – but its boss says journalists should not fear it means being replaced by machines.

Jim Mullen, the chief executive of Reach, said that after a working group explored the possibilities for the use of AI, the company let a bot produce three articles last week.

The articles were published on the local news site InYourArea.co.uk, one of which was “Seven Things to do in Newport”, with Mullen spying an opportunity to automate content based primarily on data and lists.

However, sources at the publisher said that news of the successful AI test had put some journalists “on edge” as Reach continues to focus on heavy cost-cutting – including the loss of 200 roles announced in January – to control the impact of soaring inflation and newsprint prices reaching a 15-year high.

However, Mullen said the development of AI was not part of a “hidden agenda” to ultimately make big savings by being able to cut human staff; the company’s 4,000 employees represent its biggest cost.

“We produced our first AI content in the last 10 days but this is led by editorial,” he said. “It was all AI-produced but the data was obviously put together by a journalist, and whether it was good enough to publish was decided by an editor.”

Mullen said that in areas based on data, such as “things to do”, weather and “what’s local traffic like?” pieces, AI might be reliable enough to take on the production of content.

“There are loads of ethics around AI and journalistic content,” Mullen said. “The way I look at it we produce lots of content based on actual data. It can be put together in a well-read [piece] that I think AI can do. We are trying to apply