Google Is Reportedly Paying News Outlets To Use Its AI Article Writing Technology
The alleged beta program requires outlets to publish generated articles 3 times a week.
Google has a new tool that churns out AI-generated articles and to test out the technology, it’s paying small news outlets to publish them, Adweek reported.
Adweek allegedly viewed internal documents that detail Google’s beta program, which has given select small news organizations access to the tool.
As part of the deal, the publications are expected to use Google’s generative AI program to publish a minimum of three articles per day, one newsletter per week and one marketing campaign each month over the course of a year. In exchange, the news outlets receive a monthly stipend, which adds up to a five-figure sum after 12 months. The program was reportedly part of the Google News Initiative, a project launched in 2018 to provide news outlets with technology resources.
According to Adweek, GNI began soliciting applications in October, picked the participating publications in January and officially launched the beta program in February.
Publishers are reportedly asked to compile a list of websites and outlets that publish content relevant to their own. When those websites publish a new article, it shows up on a dashboard and the participating publisher can then select a given article to have summarized by Google’s AI in the style of a news story.
A human editor will then read over the story and publish it – though they won’t necessarily label it as being AI-generated, Adweek reported.
The alleged program is troubling news for those in the journalism industry, who have already feared for their jobs being replaced by AI. It also poses a dilemma for the websites providing the original material, which are seemingly having their content used without permission.
“The experimental tool is being responsibly designed to help small, local publishers produce high quality journalism using factual content from public data sources – like a local government’s public information office or health authority,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement shared with Hypebeast. “Publishers remain in full editorial control of what is ultimately published on their site. These tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating, and fact-checking their articles.”
