Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the United States with over 200 daily outlets, has announced plans to integrate generative artificial intelligence (AI) into its story publishing system.
Gannett has emphasized the importance of human involvement in the process to prevent the automatic deployment of AI without proper oversight. Renn Turiano, Senior Vice President and Head of Product at Gannett, explained in a recent Reuters interview that generative AI presents an opportunity to streamline operations and alleviate journalists from mundane tasks.
Turiano added, “The desire to go fast was a mistake for some of the other news services,” he said without singling out a specific outlet. “We’re not making that mistake.”
Gannett is not alone in its approach. Reuters President, Paul Bascobert, stated in response to inquiries about the company’s plans that the company is “taking a responsible approach that safeguards accuracy and fosters trust,” while embracing AI technologies.
The incorporation of AI tools that generate content or data in response to prompts or user questions is a topic of deliberation for many U.S. newsrooms. Experts caution that generative AI has limitations, including the potential to produce misinformation disguised as certainty, a significant concern in an industry that demands accuracy.
“Where I am right now is I wouldn’t recommend these models for any journalistic use case where you’re publishing automatically to a public channel,” said Northwestern University associate professor Nicholas Diakopoulos.
Gannett’s strategy reflects the cautious approach taken by several mainstream newsrooms, influenced by high-profile instances of generative AI errors at media outlets such as CNET and Men’s Journal. These incidents involved the generation of stories with factual inaccuracies.
Gannett plans to launch a live pilot program in the next quarter, utilizing AI to identify key points within an article and generate bulleted summaries at the beginning. The feature is scheduled to be implemented in the fourth quarter at USA Today.