By Golly, the Gray Lady Will Not Miss This AI Tech Revolution!
November 2, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb humanoid. No smart software required.
The technology beacon of the “real” newspaper is shining like a high-technology beacon. Flash, the New York Times Online. Flash, terminating the exclusive with LexisNexis. Flash. The shift to a — wait for it — a Web site. Flash. The in-house indexing system. Flash. Buying About.com. Flash. Doing podcasts. My goodness, the flashes have impaired my vision. And where are we today after labor strife, newsroom craziness, and a list of bestsellers that gets data from…? I don’t really know, and I just haven’t bothered to do some online poking around.
A real journalist of today uses smart software to write listicles for Buzzfeed, essays for high school students, and feature stories for certain high profile newspapers. Thanks for the drawing Microsoft Bing. Trite but okay.
I thought about the technology flashes from the Gray Lady’s beacon high atop its building sort of close to Times Square. Nice branding. I wonder if mobile phone users know why the tourist destination is called Times Square. Since I no longer work in New York, I have forgotten. I do remember the high intensity pinks and greens of a certain type of retail establishment. In fact, I used to know the fellow who created this design motif. Ah, you don’t remember. My hunch is that there are other factoids you and I won’t remember.
For example, what’s the byline on a New York Times’s story? I thought it was the name or names of the many people who worked long hours, made phone calls, visited specific locations, and sometimes visited the morgue (no, the newspaper morgue, not the “real” morgue where the bodies of compromised sources ended up).
If the information in that estimable source Showbiz411.com is accurate, the Gray Lady may cite zeros and ones. The article is “The New York Times Help Wanted: Looking for an AI Editor to Start Publishing Stories. Six Figure Salary.” Now that’s an interesting assertion. A person like me might ask, “Why not let a recent college graduate crank out machine generated stories?” My assumption is that most people trying to meet a deadline and in sync with Taylor Swift will know about machine-generated information. But, if the story is true, here’s what’s up:
… it looks like the Times is going let bots do their journalism. They’re looking for “a senior editor to lead the newsroom’s efforts to ambitiously and responsibly make use of generative artificial intelligence.” I’m not kidding. How the mighty have fallen. It’s on their job listings.
The Showbiz411.com story allegedly quotes the Gray Lady’s help wanted ad as saying:
“This editor will be responsible for ensuring that The Times is a leader in GenAI innovation and its applications for journalism. They will lead our efforts to use GenAI tools in reader-facing ways as well as internally in the newsroom. To do so, they will shape the vision for how we approach this technology and will serve as the newsroom’s leading voice on its opportunity as well as its limits and risks. “
There are a bunch of requirements for this job. My instinct is that a few high school students could jump into this role. What’s the difference between a ChatGPT output about crossing the Delaware and writing a “real” news article about fashion trends seen at Otto’s Shrunken Head.
Several observations:
- What does this ominous development mean to the accountants who will calculate the cost of “real” journalists versus a license to smart software? My thought is that the general reaction will be positive. Imagine: No vacays, no sick days, and no humanoid protests. The Promised Land has arrived.
- How will the Gray Lady’s management team explain this cuddling up to smart software? Perhaps it is just one of those newsroom romances? On the other hand, what if something serious develops and the smart software moves in? Yipes.
- What will “informed” reads think of stories crafted by the intellectual engine behind a high school student’s essay about great moments in American history? Perhaps the “informed” readers won’t care?
Exciting stuff in the world of real journalism down the street from Times Square and the furries, pickpockets, and gawkers from Ames, Iowa. I wonder if the hallucinating smart software will be as clever as the journalist who fabricates a story? Probably not. “Real” journalists do not shape, weaponized, or filter the actual factual. Is John Wiley & Sons ready to take the leap?
Stephen E Arnold, November 2, 2023
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