The New York Times is building a team to explore AI in the newsroom

“The New York Times” is embracing generative AI and plans to build a team to explore its use in the newsroom. The team will prototype uses of generative AI and machine learning techniques to aid reporting and presentation to readers. The initiative will involve hiring roles such as machine learning engineers, software engineers, designers, and editors with a mix of engineering, research, and design talent.

Despite the excitement around incorporating AI tools into the company, “The New York Times” ensures that its journalism will always be produced by expert journalists. The publication had previously blocked openAI’s web crawler from scraping its content and filed a lawsuit against the AI company and Microsoft, alleging that the AI model reproduces its articles word for word, undermining its relationship with readers and revenue.

Other news organizations have also been exploring the integration of AI, including generative and traditional machine learning, into their newsrooms. However, the use of AI in newsrooms has been controversial, bringing about fake news proliferation and stories written by AI with fake human bylines.