Newspaper Created Alone by AI Has Appeared… 'Human Reporters' Unnecessary?
Date
Mar 19, 2025
Classification
- AI/IT/Productivity
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Kim Ik-hyun, Director of the Media Research Institute sini@zdnet.co.kr
Il Foglio AI article
"Reporters aren't the only ones at risk?" The emergence of an AI newspaper that even replaced the editor-in-chief
🫑 3-Line Summary
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Please pay attention to the shocking news that the Italian daily newspaper 'Il Foglio' has published a newspaper produced by entrusting 100% of the work—from writing articles and selecting headlines to summarizing and editing the layout—to AI.
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Although the articles written by AI were grammatically correct and clear, they also revealed a clear limitation in that they lacked 'interviews' and 'on-site experience' obtained by meeting sources in person.
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As you witness the evolution of AI to perform high-level tasks such as planning and editing (desk) beyond simple writing, recognize that the essence of the content business is shifting from 'information processing' to 'information production'.
🥦 Insight
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Don't sit at the 'desk'; run out to the 'field'.
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Have you perhaps been complacent, thinking, "AI can't handle high-level tasks like planning or strategy"? This case serves as a powerful warning demonstrating just how complacent that belief is. Desk jobs—seated tasks of gathering data and editing it polishably—are now performed by AI faster and cheaper than by humans.
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However, this AI newspaper also had a fatal flaw: the 'human touch.' While it was good at processing existing data, it failed to capture the raw voices obtained through hard work in the field.
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If you are starting a content or knowledge-based business, keep this in mind: a business model that organizes and sells "information found through search" is short-lived. Only insights gained by going to places AI can never reach—that is, the "field"—and personally facing challenges and learning from mistakes will become the true premium content.
— View original —
"Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) Replace Journalists?"
As generative AI, including ChatGPT, gains prominence, a long-standing debate in the media industry is resurfacing. Opinions vary widely, ranging from proponents of complete replacement to those arguing that it is still premature. Nevertheless, a compromise view that "the journalist's domain is still significant" is the prevailing trend.
This debate focuses on the "act of writing." It also includes a critical assessment that a significant portion of articles written by journalists are based on press releases. Conversely, the view that "on-the-ground reporting" will remain a uniquely human domain is gaining traction.
The view that the act of 'selecting and editing articles' is also an area difficult for AI to encroach upon remains largely unshaken. This means that selecting major articles, adding headlines, and editing them are tasks unique to humans.
Launched a 4-page print and online edition simultaneously
Recently, an Italian daily newspaper released a newspaper made entirely of AI, slightly raising doubts about this belief.
The subject of much attention is the Italian daily newspaper 'Il Foglio'. On the 18th (local time), Il Foglio unveiled a newspaper created entirely by artificial intelligence (AI), without any intervention from human reporters. Not only the article body, but also the headlines, citations, and summaries of the beginning of the articles were all written by AI.
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