Under some of the recent Los Angeles Times’ opinions on the dangers of artificial intelligence, there is now an AI-generated response on how AI makes storytelling more democratic.
“Part of the film world has come across the arrival of open-armed AI tools. Rachel Antel, Stephanie Jenkins and Jennifer Petruceli, co-directors of the Archive Producer Alliance, wrote on March 1.
Their comment piece, published over the Academy Awards weekend, focused on the specific dangers of AI-generated footage in documentary films and the possibility that unregulated use of AI could crush viewers’ “faith in visual truth.”
On Monday, the Los Angeles Times’ ridiculous AI tool, Insight, labelled the argument politically as “center-left,” providing four “different views on topics” beneath it.
These new AI-generated answers, not reviewed by Los Angeles Times journalists before publishing, are designed to provide “voice and perspectives from all sides.” “There’s no more echo chambers.”
Now, public criticism of AI on the LA Times website is followed by artificially generated AI defenses.
AI tools responded to human writers, arguing that not only AI “democratizes historical storytelling”, but that “technological advances can coexist with safeguards” and that “regulation suppresses innovation.”
“Advocates argue that AI’s artistic expression and educational possibilities outweigh the risk of misuse if users maintain critical awareness.”
Antel, Jenkins and Petrusel declined to comment on AI’s response to their opinions.
According to the LA Times, “different views” of the LA Times opinion are generated by AI in a partnership with AI company Perplexity, whereas “point analysis” of the work as “left, center, center, right or right” is generated in collaboration with Particle News.
Soon-Shiong on Monday claimed that AI-generated content under the Los Angeles Times opinion “is in favor of our journalistic mission and helps readers navigate the issues facing this country.”
While journalists in the paper support efforts to improve news literacy and distinguish news from opinions, I don’t think that this approach – an analysis that is unattractive by editorial staff – is doing much to increase trust in the media. “Textly the opposite, this tool risks further eroding confidence in the news.”
The AI tool only provides additional commentary on the various parts of the opinion, not news coverage of the paper, the Los Angeles Times said.
In most cases, newspaper AI tools do not provide AI responses to discussions about artificial intelligence. Instead, like some recent opinions, the AI ”Insight” button offers ProTrump’s response to fragments of opinions critical of Donald Trump.
