Microsoft will write their own news stories using AI in the midst of New York Times lawsuit

Semafor launched today a new breaking news feed called Signals that will allegedly use Microsoft and Open AI tools to write original stories. Apparently, the Redmond giant has a significant involvement in this project.

According to FT, Microsoft has paid an undisclosed sum to sponsor the new Signals tool, despite a lawsuit that the New York Times issued against the IT corporation in December last year.

How will Microsoft use Signals to write stories?

According to Semafor’s press release, actual journalists around the globe will write the stories, andAI will only be used to gather additional information.

Our journalists around the globe identify the central facts of a story, then curate the key analysis and insight from a global range of news sources — including different, sometimes opposing, views on the same piece of information.

In this, they’re aided by AI tools that help them search news sources across multiple languages and geographies, allowing them to extend their reach to bring more, and more diverse, perspectives to readers. When tapping into these AI research tools, our editors then evaluate and verify sources, compose summaries, and clearly cite and link readers to the original information.

Semafor

They clearly state that the new stories will cite and link to the original information, but that remains to be seen.

On the latest blog post, Microsoft signals the collaboration with Semafor and Signals to “assist journalists in their research, source discovery, translation, and more”. However, they also mention collaborations with The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, The Online News Association and The GroundTruth Project to create what they call the newsrooms of the future with AI.

The Redmond giant is also investing in Nota, a tool for journalists and publishers that uses AI to provide tips and assist in outsourcing the information.

Nota will soon release a new tool called PROOF, an assistive recommendation widget that will give real-time tips to journalists and editors about how to better reach audiences with their content through readability, SEO analysis, link integrity, and more.

Nota

In the New York Times lawsuit, the paper claims that Microsoft has crawled and used information from many of their articles by using AI chatbots, asking for billions of dollars in compensation.

Thus, Signals will come as a legitimate way of getting the information without damaging any source they pick up.

Someone needs to find a way to identify AI content or discriminate it against human-created content. Search engines certainly don’t discern one from another, destroying many content-based businesses worldwide.

What do you think about Signals and AI-driven content? Tell us all about that in the comments section below.