The AI Chatbot Comes in to See the Shrink ...

 "Letter from the editor on generative AI and the FT - Our journalism will continue to be reported, written and edited by humans who are the best in their fields"

By Roula Khalaf, Financial Times, May 27, 2023 

That editor of Financial Times might regret this boast about keeping the journalism process as primarily human. That's because that media center probably can't afford it long term. And readers could come to prefer what has a generative AI imprint on it. The AI-created voice could come across as less strident and biased. Currently human journalists tend to suck up way too much oxygen. We want information and insight, not the intrusive presence of an opinionated journalist. 

Already successful Insider is incorporating generative AI. 

For financially distressed Buzzfeed it's a cost-control strategy necessary for survival. 

And those who know their way around communications already know that the work product can be superior to what humans create. What is picked up in research, the data selected for presentation, the organization of the content, and the tone typically are better than just-right. That happens in minutes. Human feature journalists could struggle for hours or even days with the same material. Soon enough generative AI could become capable of investigative reporting.

The result is so amazing that it can scare a media organization into backing away. For example, instead of prompting into ChatGPT from the get-go for everything from story ideas to the first draft of the article, they make it the last step, positioning what it introduces as possible add-ons. 

Actually AI journalism could save media. O'Dwyer Public Relations documents that trust in media is at an all-time low. The broadcast of the evening news on ABC could have more credibility if the audience is aware it's primarily AI-generated. Anchor David Muir simply provides the packaging. 

In addition, the power of media, as it is put together by humans, has become iffy. At one time the platitude has been that media was the most powerful institution in the world.

The 2021 lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct "Guzel Ganivea v Leon Black" initially caught fire in the media. The #MeToo movement was still strong. Defendant Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo financial empire, was a sitting duck for a media hatchet job because of his previous association with vilified Jeffrey Epstein. 

However the law triumphed over clickbait. Last Wednesday Judge David Cohen tossed the civil litigation. He assessed it had too many legal flaws and pointed to the relevance of contract law. Ganieva has signed an NDA and, despite English being her second language, he concluded that she understood the terms and conditions. Obviously, Black has been sprung free to put together reputation restoration. Ganieva is finished. Totally collapsed is the market for what she tried to sell.

That all-too-human chase of clickbait through seeming misrepresenting angles might not happen again. Not only might journalists not try to pull that again after so much egg on their faces.  Generative AI could prevent the angles from even being considered. Becoming more and more legally astute versions of chatbots could finger the NDA as grounds for dismissal. The story would be framed quite differently.

Incidentally, reader turnoff is already a phenomenon in journalistic hatchet jobs in book form. Recently, they included "Servants of the Damned" and "Bully Market." After some attention at publication, both quickly drifted down in sales. It has become a tired strategy for professional fame to take on institutions such as Jones Day, Paul Weiss, and Goldman Sachs. Generative AI is ego-free. There could be a cartoon of a chatbot on the couch. The shrink falls asleep. The chatbot, so emotionally sound, is boring as hell. Meanwhile, SNL can do a skit on that next weekend. 

What I hammer for clients is this: The first step in any communications is to play with inputs to generative AI prompts. Keep playing. Only then determine the whatever, ranging from scope of the project to target markets to repurposing. During the process keep submitting questions about it to the prompts. 

Generative AI is that “Black Swan” disrupting your communications. Complimentary consultation from Jane Genova (text 203-468-8579, email janegenova374@gmail.com)