AI is an opportunity for journalism5 reading minutes

Far from heralding the end of journalism, artificial intelligence can free newsrooms from mechanical tasks and offer more time for investigating, analyzing and polishing texts. On one condition.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now invading all sectors. We talk about it with fascination or fear, often both. Journalism is no exception to this phenomenon, between the Cassandras who predict the end of the profession - the most numerous in the profession - and the enthusiasts who already see the machine replacing the pen. There is, however, a finer path: that of the thoughtful integration of AI in the service of meaning. Because AI, properly employed, represents a remarkable opportunity for the industry.

Until recently, journalists spent part of their day carrying out repetitive and inefficient tasks: transcribing interviews, summarizing documents... All technical operations that consume time and energy without providing much food for thought. But this is precisely what AI can do. If these tools are entrusted with the mechanical tasks, it becomes possible to reinvest in the heart of the job: multiplying research, analyzing, prioritizing, taking care of the writing...

Read also | Artificial intelligence: two years that changed everything

This freeing up of time is no mere detail. It's a real revolution, and an opportunity to breathe new life into a profession stifled by superficiality and mimicry. It's true that AI itself leads to content homogeneity if it isn't complemented by added value from the journalist. It's up to the journalist. Even before the advent of these technologies, he was already tending to copy his colleagues! In short, AI merely automates the first stage of «field scanning» and raw writing, before the real work of standing out from the crowd on this basis. What's more, the more the journalist has the idea of an original angle before even interacting with the AI, the easier it will be for this help to bear fruit.

Another often overlooked benefit is machine translation, which is now impressively accurate. It enables French-speaking editors to quickly consult sources in other languages, and capture their spirit. It also enables a team, with a little agility, to offer a systematic and calibrated translation of its content. The circulation of information and opinions, essential to the search for truth and democratic debate, is thus multiplied. In French-speaking Switzerland, L'Agefi showed the way. Le Regard Libre takes the plunge this month with the release of its special issue «Switzerland and the United States, past and present».».

Read also | No «all in» in AI

Better still, the sudden availability of a multitude of articles in numerous languages means that each title is more than ever obliged to offer a single editorial line. Otherwise, there's no point in a Zurich resident reading the German version of a French-language medium if it tells the same story as the NZZ. The more the means of production become standardized, the more vital it becomes to distinguish oneself through content, and therefore through thought. Thus, AI is not only an opportunity for journalism, but also for the confrontation of ideas, which has always been the compass of the Regard Libre.

There is, of course, one essential condition for this evolution to be a step forward: education. Both in the use of AI tools and in the humanities. To be trained in history, philosophy and literature is to approach the complexity of the world and the human being. Without this, technologies only serve to accelerate the void. All the more reason to refocus teaching on what really educates, notably by doing away with «awareness» hours designed to shape behavior rather than nourish minds.

Graduate in philosophy and journalist by profession, Jonas Follonier is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Regard Libre.

You have just read an open-access editorial from our print edition (Le Regard Libre N°121). Debates, analyses, cultural news: subscribe to support us and access all our content.