The New York Times has announced plans to implement AI tools for its editorial and product staff, stating that these internal tools could ultimately assist in generating social media copy, SEO headlines, and some coding tasks, reports Semafor. This initiative follows an email communication sent to newsroom staff, revealing the launch of a new in-house AI tool named Echo.
New York Times introduces AI tools for editorial staff
The Times indicated that it is opening up AI training for newsroom personnel and shared a suite of AI applications available for staff use, which include GitHub Copilot for coding, Google’s Vertex AI for product development, NotebookLM, NYT’s ChatExplorer, various Amazon AI products, and OpenAI’s non-ChatGPT API—though the latter requires approval from the company’s legal department. Additionally, the Echo tool has been designed to allow journalists to summarize Times articles, briefings, and interactives.
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Editorial staff are encouraged to utilize these AI tools for a variety of tasks including creating SEO headlines, summaries, audience promotions, suggesting edits, brainstorming questions, and conducting research on the Times’ own documents and images. A mandatory training video shared with staff proposed using AI to generate interview questions for startup CEOs and suggested possible uses for developing news quizzes, social media posts, quote cards, and FAQs.
The editorial guidelines shared with staff included specific prompts, such as: “How many times was Al mentioned in these episodes of Hard Fork?” and “Can you summarize this federal government report in layman’s terms?” However, the Times emphasized certain restrictions on AI usage, warning staff against drafting or significantly revising articles with AI, entering third-party copyrighted materials, bypassing paywalls, or publishing machine-generated images or videos without proper labeling and context.
Despite the enthusiasm expressed by the company about the potential benefits of generative AI, such as improving accessibility through features like digitally voiced articles and translations, some employees voiced skepticism. Concerns included the potential for AI to prompt lazy or unoriginal content, as well as fears it might generate inaccuracies. Tensions remain between AI companies and some Times staff, especially after comments from the CEO of the AI company Perplexity, who suggested using AI tools to replace workers during a previous strike by tech employees at the Times.
Currently, the New York Times is embroiled in a legal dispute with OpenAI, accusing the company of unauthorized use of its content for training purposes, which the Times claims constitutes significant copyright infringement. Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, has publicly stated that the Times is attempting to hinder technological innovation.
Featured image credit: Roman Kraft/Unsplash
