Google announces Genesis, AI tool for journalists

Google announces Genesis, AI tool for journalists

Google has announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool dubbed “Genesis” for use in journalism and the media, in addition to its existing AI tools for personal, productivity, and developer use cases.

The New York Times reports that Google is developing an AI tool called Genesis that can take in “details of current events” and other data in order to “generate news copy.”  

Google has put out this product as a “personal assistant for journalists” especially those working with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Executives who witnessed Google’s proposal characterized it as unsettling, but they did not want to be named since they were discussing a sensitive topic. 

According to two reviewers, it appeared to overlook the work that goes into creating compelling and fact-checked news articles.

Read also: Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, adds Swahili to its language expansion

The development is a tailored tool AI tool

In a statement, Google said, “In partnership with news publishers, especially smaller publishers, we’re in the early stages of exploring ideas to potentially provide AI-enabled tools to help journalists with their work.”

AI-powered tools, for instance, may provide writers with suggestions for headlines or formats. Our goal is to give journalists the choice of using these emerging technologies in a way that enhances their work and productivity, just like we’re making assistive tools available for people in Gmail and in Google Docs.”

“Quite simply these tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating, and fact-checking their articles.”

Genesis is currently being worked on as a tailored tool that can generate news text when given event-specific facts. According to those in the know, Google intends for Genesis to be a helpful companion to journalists.

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The aim is to enhance journalists’ work

A Google spokesperson told The Verge that the programme is still in its early stages and that one of its key goals is to examine how AI-enabled tools may be used to improve journalists’ work. These artificial intelligence (AI) technologies may, for instance, help journalists by recommending alternative headlines or writing styles.

The spokesperson said, “Our aim is to give journalists the option to use these emerging technologies in a way that enhances their work and productivity, just like we’re making assistive tools available to people in Gmail and in Google Docs.”

It’s unclear which division of the firm is behind Genesis. Google’s Bard offers comparable functionality, while Messages, with Magic Compose, provides a more contextual version of Google’s “Help me write” feature seen in Gmail and Google Docs.