Bloomberg and the Bots
A few days ago, The New York Times published a remarkable story: Bloomberg News, one of the most powerful forces in business journalism, had introduced factual errors into at least three dozen article pages using its new “takeaways” carousel. The recently introduced artificial intelligence feature, which has been prominently affixed to the top of most stories, was designed to spotlight key points in its reporting.
In a statement to The Times, a Bloomberg spokesperson moved to dismiss concerns about the A.I. carousel, telling reporter Katie Robertson that it is “transparent when stories are updated or corrected.” But it was what the spokesperson said next that caught the attention of reporters inside the Bloomberg newsroom.
“Journalists have full control over whether a summary appears—both before and after publication—and can remove any that don’t meet our standards,” the Bloomberg spokesperson asserted to The Times.
For the journalists inside the John Micklethwait-led news outlet, however, the statement—like some of the A.I.-generated takeaways themselves—didn’t quite hold up…
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Brendan Carr and Donald Trump. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Status Scoop | Carr’s Drive-By Claims: Donald Trump’s FCC chair, Brendan Carr, lashed out Tuesday at Democrats for launching a probe into his series of eyebrow-raising investigations targeting media companies. In a statement to Status, Carr accused Democrats of “weaponizing” the country’s communications laws against Republicans. He offered little evidence, of course, but leaned on a familiar grievance playbook…
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Related Knowledge Center: Artificial intelligence
On top of a failing business model, newsrooms must navigate the powerful — and not fully reliable — new capabilities of artificial intelligence and the deployment of large language models.
State of the business model | Copyright and intellectual property
Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors