DUBAI: With the everchanging technological landscape the world is witnessing, Artificial Intelligence’s impact on the world of journalism has proved to be a double-edged sword, the Associated Press’ Director of News Partnerships Lisa Gibbs explained at Dubai’s Arab Media Forum on Tuesday.
“The biggest issue we face today is the war on fake news. AI will be a powerful tool for those seeking to create it and those seeking to combat it,” she said, adding that, “technology is getting better at creating fake images and thus we need to build tools to spot these fake images, the same goes for text and video.”
The rise of fake news across social media platforms pushed the Associated Press to launch a tool called “AP Verify” which allows AI to assess and verify news extracted from social media, Gibbs explained.
With this, AI is being introduced to more speedily form news stories based on verified minimal information supplied – thus churning out 3,700 stories a day in comparison to the 300 done solely using human journalists.
Gibbs explains that AI has the ability to create stories from merely reading data files; it also has the ability to create multiple versions of the same story to suit different platforms from broadcast and print media to digital.
While AI seems to be taking over the jobs of human journalists, Gibbs highlighted that no jobs were lost due to this – rather journalists were freed to be involved in more investigative and analytical work.
While the introduction of AI changes the way news is told by becoming more automated, the ethics and editorial principals “must stay the same,” Gibbs said.
Artificial intelligence is not the only factor playing a role in the changing landscape of storytelling, with visuals and interactives solidifying the shift in news consumers’ demands.
“The question now is: are you interested in visual news, in big themes? The consumers answer is yes, which has a huge impact on the way we tell news,” Agence-France-Presse’s Global Editor-in-Chief Phil Chetwynd said in a separate session.
“We have the capacity, through images, to tell stories we couldn’t before – all you need is internet, or at the simplest level a mobile phone – which will allow the reality to tell information in a very powerful way,” he added.
The rise of user-generated content and eye-witness media proved to be a significant in expanding the scope of where news comes from, Chetwynd explained, with 2015’s Charlie Hebdo attack being a key example of an image taken by an eye-witness being used by leading global outlets covering the incident.
Artificial Intelligence a tool for those creating and combating fake news
Artificial Intelligence a tool for those creating and combating fake news
EU warns Meta it must open up WhatsApp to rival AI chatbots
- The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules
BRUSSELS: The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules.
The European Commission said a change in Meta’s terms had “effectively” barred third-party artificial intelligence assistants from connecting to customers via the messaging platform since January.
Competition chief Teresa Ribera said the EU was “considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta’s new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe.”
The EU executive, which is in charge of competition policy, sent Meta a warning known as a “statement of objections,” a formal step in antitrust probes.
Meta now has a chance to reply and defend itself. Monday’s step does not prejudge the outcome of the probe, the commission said.
The tech giant rejected the commission’s preliminary findings.
“The facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“There are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission’s logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots,” the spokesperson said.
Opened in December, the EU probe marks the latest attempt by the 27-nation bloc to rein in Big Tech, many of whom are based in the United States, in the face of strong pushback by the government of US President Donald Trump.
- Meta in the firing line -
The investigation covers the European Economic Area (EEA), made up of the bloc’s 27 states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — with the exception of Italy, which opened a separate investigation into Meta in July.
The commission said that Meta is “likely to be dominant” in the EEA for consumer messaging apps, notably through WhatsApp, and accused Meta of “abusing this dominant position by refusing access” to competitors.
“We cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage,” Ribera said in a statement.
There is no legal deadline for concluding an antitrust probe.
Meta is already under investigation under different laws in the European Union.
EU regulators are also investigating its platforms Facebook and Instagram over fears they are not doing enough to tackle the risk of social media addiction for children.
The company also appealed a 200-million-euro fine imposed last year by the commission under the online competition law, the Digital Markets Act.
That case focused on its policy asking users to choose between an ad-free subscription and a free, ad-supported service, and Brussels and Meta remain in discussions over finding an alternative that would address the EU’s concerns.
