Most newsrooms across the U.S. and Europe are all-in on AI, according to a new study from the Associated Press, which found that nearly 70% of those surveyed are already using AI in some way.
“It’s an exciting moment for journalism and technology, maybe a little too exciting, which makes it difficult to plan for the next year let alone what may transpire in the next 10 years,” says Aimee Rinehart, co-author of the AP study.
Primary uses of AI in newsrooms right now include auto-generating story drafts, social media posts, newsletters and headlines, translating text and transcribing reporter interviews, according to the study.
Adds Hannes Cools, study co-author: “I do believe that generative AI is here to stay, and it will — if it hasn’t already — be present in many aspects of our daily lives.”
In other AI-generated news and analysis:
*In-Depth Guide: Custom-Fit Alternatives to Copy.ai: Writer Sam Dawson offers his take on some of the best AI writers currently available — based on your personal use case.
Writesonic is great for auto-generating blog posts and similar copy, while Word.ai is a good pick for rewrites and Frase is more suited to writers looking to SEO-optimize their copy, according to Dawson.
Bottom line: This is a great piece to check-out to ensure you’re bringing an AI writer on board that specially designed for your particular writing needs.
*ChatGPT Just Got Smarter: Writers looking for writing from ChatGPT that is more direct, less verbose — and opts for more conversational language — will be happy with the tool’s new upgrade.
The enhanced writing capability — available with ChatGPT’s paid versions Plus, Teams, and Enterprise — is powered by a new AI engine for the tool, GPT-4 Turbo.
In addition, the GPT-4 Turbo AI engine also offers users improved chops in math, logical reasoning and coding.
Plus, GPT-4 Turbo also adds an upgraded, overall knowledgebase to ChatGPT that’s current to December 2023.
*Key Players in AI Writing: More Than Just ChatGPT Clones: Infinity Business Insights has released its list of the top players in AI writing in 2024.
The list forms the framework for IBI’s new study, “AI Writing Tool Market Insights, Extending to 2031.”
Many of the company’s listed by IBI use ChatGPT’s underlying AI engine — or similar AI tech — to power their AI writing.
They attempt to distinguish their auto-writers from ChatGPT and similar AI engines by layering on a custom dashboard of additional writing tools.
AI writing companies that made IBI’s list (with links to each company’s pricing page) include:
Jasper
Sudowrite
Anyword
INK
Scalenut
Neuraltext
Writesonic
Wordtune
Sapling
Notion Labs
Copy.ai
Rytr
Chibi AI
Surfer
Article Forge
WordAI
AI Writer
Hypotenuse AI
Longshot
CreaitorAI
CopySmith
OpenAI
Writer
GrowthBar
Closerscopy
ParagraphAI
Frase
*Ultimate Persuader: AI Bests Humans at Winning Hearts and Minds: It’s official: If you’re looking to persuade people with an op-ed piece, marketing copy or similar text, your best bet is to turn to AI to auto-generate the piece, according to a new study.
Researchers found that an AI opinion piece written using ChatGPT’s underlying AI engine GPT-4 was preferred over human-written copy 82% of the time.
Observes writer Matthias Bastian: “The study suggests that such AI-driven persuasion strategies could have a major impact in sensitive online environments such as social media.”
*Street Hustle: AI Competitors Still Nipping at ChatGPT’s Heels: In the wake of ChatGPT’s new upgrade, fierce competitors like Google and Mistral have doubled-down on their chase.
Observes The Guardian: “OpenAI, Google, and the French artificial intelligence startup Mistral have all released new versions of their frontier AI models within 12 hours of one another, as the industry prepares for a burst of activity over the summer.
Meanwhile, Facebook parent Meta is expected to release a significant overhaul to its own AI engine this summer.
*When Some of the Best Things in AI Are Free: While the maker of ChatGPT is still the top choice for corporate customers looking to add AI, a number of open-source AI makers are giving the leader a run for its money.
Says writer Sharon Goldman: “The landscape now includes unicorn startups such as Mistral and Together AI — and boasts a constant barrage of new open-source AI models that are getting ever-closer to beating OpenAI’s flagship GPT-4.
“Just over the past couple of weeks, there were also open source releases of Large Language Models (AI engines) from top companies like Databricks, Cerebras, AI21 and Cohere,” Goldman adds.
Proponents of open-source release their AI engines free to the public, reasoning that corporate customers will still pay for customized versions of the basic AI code.
Simultaneously, free access to the generic AI engines also enables AI researchers across-the-globe to learn from the latest AI research and continually improve on it.
*Free Journalism + AI Online Fest, April 17-21: Writers and editors looking to stream free, live online presentations on AI and journalism will want to check-out a free AI festival this week.
Dubbed the International Journalism Festival, the in-person and online fest offers a number of tracks in English.
Plus, the gathering offers still more tracks featuring automated, simultaneous translation into English and other popular languages.
AI tracks in the fest include:
~Applying AI in Small Newsrooms
~Can Journalism Survive AI
~Freelance Journalism in the Age of AI
*Walmart Online Powers Up With AI Writing: Third-party sellers on the Walmart.com site can now auto-generate product descriptions using ChatGPT and similar AI tech.
The new tool, dubbed ContentHubGPT, also auto-suggests keywords for those product descriptions as well as other suggestions for search engine optimization.
Says Sumit Kapoor, managing partner, Zorang — maker of ContentHubGPT: “Walmart Marketplace is a leader and it gives me tremendous pride to collaborate with such a storied name.”
*AI Big Picture: Pizza Hut Goes ‘AI First:’ You know the world has reached critical mass in AI when brands like Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken boldly declare they are now ‘AI First’ companies.
Says Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer, Yum Brands — the parent company behind Pizza Hut et al: Our vision “is that an AI-first mentality works every step of the way.
“If you think about the major journeys within a restaurant that can be AI-powered, we believe it’s endless.”
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–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.