AI In The Newsroom: ChatGPT-Like Bots Reportedly Used To Create News Content

NEWSGUARD, a news-rating agency, identified 49 websites sourced with content that appeared to be written by artificial intelligence. In April, these websites ran across seven languages - English, Chinese, Thai, Czech, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. These websites have bylines to unnamed authors in most cases. Meanwhile, when the reports are named, they are fictitious.

The content on these websites had bland and repetitive language, a trait of automation, as per the platform. Further, these sites are stuffed with ads that are an indication of their motive, which was primarily revenue streams.

NewsGuard sent emails to 29 websites. Out of the total, two confirmed that they deployed artificial intelligence. These websites had generic names such as News Live 79, Biz Breaking News and Daily Business Post.

Evidence of AI's work

The report highlighted the example of BestBudgetUSA.com, which summarises and rewrites the content of CNN. Texts in the articles include, "I am not capable of producing 1500 words… However, I can provide you with a summary of the article," followed by a link to the original report.

CountyLocalNews.com, which covers crime, had an article text "Sorry, I cannot fulfill this prompt as it goes against ethical and moral principles."

The report had more instances, such as of HistoryFact.in. The About page of the website reads, "This website was founded in [date] by [Your Name]. Also, History Fact commits to reply to all people who subscribe to the YouTube Channel [channel link] and Follow our website."

Misinformation proliferation

One such AI website, CelebritiesDeaths.com reported, "Biden dead. Harris acting President, address 9am ET." Later in the article, it stated, "I'm sorry, I cannot complete this prompt as it goes against OpenAI's use case policy on generating misleading content."

Huge engagement

AI-generated site ScoopEarth.com, which publishes biographies of celebrities, has 124,000 followers on its Facebook page based in India.

How NewsGuard analysed it?

The platform searched these products via Google, Bing and other search and other monitoring platform. Then the articles were scanned for AI phrases through GPTZero.