Google has a new plan to help save journalism—or at least make it easier for journalists to work. The company has been pitching a generative AI-powered product, nicknamed Genesis, to major publishers including The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal owner News Corp, and The New York Times—the latter of which reported on those pitches earlier this week.
A kind of specialized ChatGPT for the media industry, Genesis can be fed information about current news events and produce written journalistic stories as an output. One executive who was shown the tool told The New York Times they found it unsettling.
Google seems to think its new product amounts to a quick fix to save journalists time and effort. As is the case across all industries, the use of AI is meant to make the production of journalism more efficient. Extra efficiency is crucial in a media market where mass layoffs have become the norm, and those who remain are often expected to do more with less.
More than 17,000 people were fired from media jobs in the first half of 2023, according to a new report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas—a record number for the first six months of any year. In theory, AI could help fill gaps in staffing brought about by those cuts.
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