In a recent op-ed for The Washington Post, former senior director of Google News, Jim Albrecht, envisions a groundbreaking shift in the news industry where readers engage directly with journalists through modern large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.
Albrecht draws parallels between the transformative impact of the world wide web in the early 2000s and the potential of LLMs to revolutionize journalism. He argues that while the internet changed how news is disseminated, the format of articles remained largely static until the emergence of LLMs.
With the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT LLM service in November 2022, users gained access to real-time news articles and interactive experiences. These models can not only provide information but also rephrase and aggregate news from multiple sources in a single interaction.
Albrecht predicts a future where readers prefer interacting with AI agents like ChatGPT over traditional news articles. He suggests that AI's ability to engage in "one-on-one" conversations with millions of users simultaneously will redefine how news is consumed.
However, this shift raises questions about the future of traditional journalism. While Big Tech has long forecasted the demise of print and online journalism, previous attempts to transition to new formats have met with mixed results. Some experiments using AI to generate articles have been successful, but others have faced criticism for mistakes and lack of transparency.
As the news industry continues to evolve, the rise of interactive AI news experiences heralds a new era where readers engage directly with intelligent agents to discuss and analyze current events.
