How are AI generated stories written?

One of the most exciting developments in news production is the introduction of artificial intelligence. As a notion, it’s as ground-breaking as it is terrifying. On the one hand, it means software that can write news that is unbiased, factually accurate, and continuously updated. On the other, it’s an evolution that disrupts the status quo. What happens to journalists if AI can do their job for them? AI generated stories are a big part of Ansofy. We believe that understanding something is an important first step when technological developments hit.

The automated, nonfake news generation system

In large, AI has come as a response to a phenomenon that’s been plaguing the media sphere for a while. Fake news are pieces of incorrect writing that aim to stir the audience, and intentionally misguide them. The writer is generally trying to gain an emotional response from the readers. That’s why they use subjective and emotionally loaded language – and usually very few actual facts. The source of this development in creating (mis)information is quite simply human bias and emotion.

Enter: The nonfake news generation system. The framework removes all bias; the news are all facts, all objective language use, all reliable. The concept is based on AI generated stories, and it’s a gigantic step in the direction away from fake news. These artificial intelligence computer programs are taught to write unique content based on factual details. As a result, they effectively eliminate the human factor. The statement is packed with ethical questions and considerations, of course. Still, AI generated stories are proving effective tools for fact-checking the news. 

Extracting the facts for AI generated stories – and only the facts

To understand a news generation system that’s based on artificial intelligence, we need to get down to the facts – literally. We’ve established that the beauty of AI is that it’s unbiased. Still, software is only as good as its programming, and its input. In the case of news it’s crucial that this input is based on objective truth, ie facts. The first stage of producing AI generated stories, then, is identifying these details.

This is called an extraction process. In it the AI extracts facts from other, human news sources, and checks them against each other. Turkish and Cypriot newspapers will report very differently on events in the area. But the facts generally remain the same when they’re stripped bare. Only the facts that have been corroborated by several news sources will be used as the basis for content generation in AI generated stories.

The AI article writing process

So the AI has compiled a number of facts on an event, and is ready to write its news story. It’s made sure to include only those pieces of information that it could find across the board, in all the sources it checked. Sophisticated content written by artificial intelligence works with multi-document operations. That is, if there isn’t enough factual basis for the news article, the AI won’t write it. And fake news are taken out of the news generation equation.

AI generated stories reformulate the facts and create them with unique words and sentences to avoid plagiarism. It contains the same facts as the original sources, but instead of biased language, structure or representation of the events that took place, artificial intelligence works on unbiased programming. The reader gains a completely objective and factual understanding of what took place with opinions removed from the mix.

Editing, proofing and publishing AI generated stories

A story written by artificial intelligence software goes through many of the same steps that one written by a journalist does. To start, there’s a classic editing check, that goes over language, syntax and coherence, to make sure that the article is up to scratch and understandable. After this, the text is put through a plagiarism checker, in order to make sure it’s removed from the original sources’ pieces, and optimised for search engines that will hold it up to the same standard as human-written content.

Finally, when the text is in place and approved, it’s populated with media; images, video, and social media comments. In other words: AI generated stories, when done well, are simply news articles completely removed from bias. They help readers gain clarity and a better objective understanding of events from around the globe. As we mentioned previously in this article, though, there’s no denying that the more sophisticated artificial intelligence gets, the more we need to talk about what this development means for traditional journalism.

What do AI generated stories mean for journalism?

Forbes, The NY Times, and The Guardian have all analysed what AI in news creation actually means for journalists and writers alike. And it’s obvious: If a robot can create news articles in the same way that a human can, it won’t be long until journalists all over the world are out of a job. The trick, then, is figuring out a symbiotic balance between machine and human to turn the tides for journalism and make news profitable again. 

For the time being artificial intelligence bots rely on one thing: input. Without any input, there’s no content creation – no production of any kind. In news generation today, this input is equal to the news sources the AI’s use to generate unique articles. Human journalism is necessary as source material for AI generated stories. Moving forward, the challenge will lie in figuring out how these two components can function together in a symbiotic news production market.