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Publisher G/O Media began using generative artificial intelligence to create editorial content on Wednesday, according to an internal memo seen by Adweek, making the company the latest in a growing list of publishers experimenting with the tech.
In an email shared with staff last week, editorial director Merrill Brown described the venture as a limited trial, which will produce only a handful of stories for the publishers AV Club, Gizmodo, The Takeout and Deadspin.
The company bills the technology as a means of generating the kinds of content its staff disliked producing in the first place, such as a rote list of the best sandwiches in every state. At least initially, the articles will not appear on sites’ home pages and are primarily intended to net search traffic.
One early product of the technology, an article titled A Chronological List of Star Wars Movies & TV Shows published on tech website Gizmodo on Wednesday, received immediate criticism from its deputy editor, James Whitbrook, on Twitter.
The article, whose byline attributes the piece to Gizmodo Bot, contained a number of factual errors, such as messing up the chronology of the franchise.
“This is an early, modest test,” Brown said in the memo. “These will all be designed to complement our journalism and give our editorial teams new tools to serve our audiences.”
A representative for G/O Media confirmed the trial, though they wouldn’t share specifics on the volume of content generated or whether any editorial roles will be impacted.
The GMG Union issued a response condemning the use of generative AI.
“The hard work of journalists cannot be replaced by unreliable AI programs notorious for creating falsehoods and plagiarizing the work of writers,” the union said in a statement.
The experiment comes as the media industry attempts to reckon with the transformative potential of AI. Some publishers, such as BuzzFeed Inc., have used the technology to supplement their writers’ work, while others, such as Red Ventures property CNET, have used it to produce standalone articles. CNET later paused the effort after its generated text was laden with inaccuracies.
Meanwhile, a number of premium publishers, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Dotdash Meredith, have considered forming a coalition to address the threat posed to the media industry by generative AI technology, according to The Wall Street Journal.
For G/O Media, the technology offers a potential means of generating content—and its attendant traffic—for next to no cost. The company, like many media organizations, faces the dual challenge of bolstering a wavering readership amid a depressed advertising climate.
“These features aren’t replacing work currently being done by writers and editors,” Brown wrote, “and we hope that over time if we get these forms of content right and produced at scale, AI will, via search and promotion, help us grow our audience.”
