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Tech giant Microsoft has joined forces with media startup Semafor to utilise an AI chatbot in the development of news stories.
The project, dubbed “Signals,” aims to provide a breaking news feed with diverse perspectives on major events. While human journalists will remain at the helm, the AI chatbot will serve as a research tool, scouring vast amounts of information and generating summaries and drafts to expedite the writing process. “Signals organises information to bring both clarity and perspective to complex breaking news stories. Our journalists around the globe identify the central facts of a story, then curate the key analysis and insight from a global range of news sources — including different, sometimes opposing, views on the same piece of information,” said Semafor in a post.
The journalists will be aided by AI tools that help them search news sources across multiple languages and geographies, allowing them to extend their reach to bring more, and more diverse, perspectives to readers. “When tapping into these AI research tools, our editors then evaluate and verify sources, compose summaries, and clearly cite and link readers to the original information,” said Semafor.
According to a report by Ars Tecnica, Semafor co-founder Ben Smith “emphasised that Signals will be written entirely by journalists, with artificial intelligence providing a research tool to inform posts.”
Microsoft’s involvement goes beyond simply providing the AI technology, claims the report. The company is reportedly offering Semafor “substantial” financial backing. In a blog post, Microsoft said, “Semafor will work with us to harness AI tools to assist journalists in their research, source discovery, translation, and more with Semafor Signals, helping journalists provide a diverse array of credible local, national, and global sources to their audience.”
Notably, Microsoft is facing a lawsuit filed by The New York Times over scraping the publication’s data for training its AI-based language models.
The project, dubbed “Signals,” aims to provide a breaking news feed with diverse perspectives on major events. While human journalists will remain at the helm, the AI chatbot will serve as a research tool, scouring vast amounts of information and generating summaries and drafts to expedite the writing process. “Signals organises information to bring both clarity and perspective to complex breaking news stories. Our journalists around the globe identify the central facts of a story, then curate the key analysis and insight from a global range of news sources — including different, sometimes opposing, views on the same piece of information,” said Semafor in a post.
The journalists will be aided by AI tools that help them search news sources across multiple languages and geographies, allowing them to extend their reach to bring more, and more diverse, perspectives to readers. “When tapping into these AI research tools, our editors then evaluate and verify sources, compose summaries, and clearly cite and link readers to the original information,” said Semafor.
According to a report by Ars Tecnica, Semafor co-founder Ben Smith “emphasised that Signals will be written entirely by journalists, with artificial intelligence providing a research tool to inform posts.”
Microsoft’s involvement goes beyond simply providing the AI technology, claims the report. The company is reportedly offering Semafor “substantial” financial backing. In a blog post, Microsoft said, “Semafor will work with us to harness AI tools to assist journalists in their research, source discovery, translation, and more with Semafor Signals, helping journalists provide a diverse array of credible local, national, and global sources to their audience.”
Notably, Microsoft is facing a lawsuit filed by The New York Times over scraping the publication’s data for training its AI-based language models.
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