Google has been demonstrating a new AI tool that writes news articles. Currently known as Genesis, which is a working title, the app is reportedly able to take topical information as pertains to things like new products or current events and weave it into something approximating a logically developed news story. The Alphabet company’s new product has been quietly pitched to organizations including The Washington Post, The New York Times and News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. One observer described the new tech as a copilot for journalists, rather than a replacement.

The use-case being presented was “automating some tasks to free up time for others,” and as a deployable “responsible technology that could help steer the publishing industry away from the pitfalls of generative AI,” according to The New York Times, which obtained the information through anonymous sources.

Some of those privy to Google’s pitch “described it as unsettling, asking not to be identified discussing a confidential matter.” NYT reports that some said “it seemed to take for granted the effort that went into producing accurate and artful news stories.”

Google spokeswoman Jenn Crider said in a statement provided to NYT that Genesis was developed “in partnership with news publishers, especially smaller publishers,” and that it is in the early stages.

“Quite simply, these tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating and fact-checking their articles,” Crider said, citing “options for headlines” and alternative writing styles.

It is somewhat ironic that Google is queueing an automated news generator at a time when along with Meta it has threatened to “ban” third-party news in response to new laws requiring payment to publishers, per the Los Angeles Times, reporting a law that was passed in Canada and another that “recently cleared crucial hurdles in California.”

Australia was the first to adopt such a measure, in 2021, and Google ultimately negotiated deals after threatening to yank news rather than pay.

NYT writes that “publishers and other content creators have already criticized Google and other major AI companies for using decades of their articles and posts to help train these AI systems, without compensating the publishers,” adding that news organizations “have taken a position against AI’s sucking up their data without permission.”

The technology has already caused problems in various newsrooms, including inaccurate and irrelevant content that later had to be removed. “Earlier this year,” according to TechCrunch, “CNET quietly began producing articles using generative AI,” but “ended up having to issue corrections on more than half of the articles generated by AI. Some of the articles contained factual errors, while others may have contained plagiarized material.”

Related:
Google’s Rumored ‘Genesis’ AI Tool for Journalists Could Probably Write This Article, The Verge, 7/19/23
Google Testing AI Tool That Writes News Articles, The Guardian, 7/20/23