With the development of science and technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved rapidly. The application of AI can be seen in all fields including the media industry with the development of a prototype AI anchor. In addition to AI anchors, AI is also used in various ways in Taiwan’s news industry, such as automated listening to help editors grasp the content and sort out the core news from a jumble of background information in no time.
Moreover, a Taiwanese AI company uses AI software that can summarise, fill in and generate news. It is widely used to ensure the efficiency of news production. The main work content of the “AI Intern Reporter” is to follow popular articles and rewrite them into news drafts to alleviate the workload of the reporters. Although most of the articles that it produces use specific terms and its writing mode is standardised, using AI has nevertheless successfully become a trend in news production nowadays.
Due to the prompt transmission of the news, misinformation can be passed out easily. Thus, disseminating real news becomes even more important. As a result, many fact-checking organisations of the news agencies tend to use AI to assist them in verifying information in the news.
Distinguishing Fake News: Joint Effort of Human and Machine
AI, which aims to assist journalists in fact-checking the news, has thrived in Taiwan. In fact, Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) collaborates with the Institute For Information Industry to introduce AI into the field of fact-checking while developing a fast screen platform to detect false information.
One of AI’s functions, which is called “grouping”, can classify information according to available statistics and analyse collected data. With this function of the AI, the verification team can detect and screen all the prevalent rumours on the Internet on a specific day, and then coupled with the investigation of human reporters, the authenticity of the news can be ensured.
Man and Machine Coordination Becomes a Trend
For immediacy when dealing with breaking news from abroad, reporters will use automated to assist in the compilation of news. Even though AI can shorten the working hours effectively so that the media industry can produce news fast, trans-editors should not totally trust AI’s translation, because AI could produce an incomplete article and even mislead the audience’s perception. In the process of translation, trans-editors must consider the context, and see if the article is logical and fluent or not.
Moreover, if humans can cooperate with machines, both can complement each other and maximise the benefits. More fact-checking agencies are now ready to provide technical assistance. Not only can people detect the truth through AI, but they can also verify the news reports with the help of AI.
Readers can likewise upload the information which they received on social platforms, and compare it with the written reports that are published by Taiwan FactCheck Center. Through human-machine cooperation, rumours can be detected, and this breakthrough can in fact become a showcase for Taiwan.
With AI becoming increasingly popular, the dimension of its impact in the news industry will continue to exist. However, machines still have difficulty to completely replace human beings. Today, AI is mostly used in repetitive and routine work since there are some unique human characteristics that robots cannot emulate. Fact-check and other AI services that are available in the news fields will certainly become the norm in the near future.
AI has a place in the newsroom in Taiwan and elsewhere in the world by helping the reporters save time and money and increase speed and efficiency to help human journalists keep up with the ever-expanding scale of global news.
