Break out the popcorn bucket because this one is worth watching!
While enjoying my cup of morning “go-juice” I came across this article from the New York Times where an executive from Media News Group and Tribune publishing was lamenting (freaking about) the fact that Google’s search engine is now providing AI powered news summaries to user’s queries, and placing them at the top of the search results; in effect “burying the(ir) lede”.
“It potentially chokes off the original creators [news outlet] of the content” - I mean, if you get a comprehensive and near-real-time factual summary of an ongoing event via Google, why would you proceed to read the news outlets themselves?
You mean other than curiosity, thirst for knowledge, truth, and the lessons we’ve learned since the mid 2010’s about fact checking?
This is a complex issue that touches at least two third rails; advertising dollars, and control of the narrative. I’m going to park “advertising dollars” as a topic for now. I think that the real “boogey man” here Google using AI and applying a heaping dose of real-time fact checking to the narrative that media outlets are trying desperately to control (so that they keep their audience and advertising dollars, but I digressed).
Imagine any outlet - Fox, MSNBC, The Washington Post, NewMax, CBS, etc.; having their content scraped, compared, and summarized as a whole by AI; and then “white labeled” and served to the audience. It would be hard to miss the outliers that are three to four sigma deviations away from the centered narrative. If you heard the song “one of these, is not like the others” in your head, you are not alone.
Of course, Google serving the information begs the question of who controls THAT “AI” narrative, and the skeptic in me is whispering hard - “the advertising dollars”.
Surely Google will be “unbiased” and let the AI engine be neutral, fair and balanced (where have I heard this…?) but I get the feeling that we will still need to fact check news and content for a while. It will not be long until the folks from advertising revenue speak up and have an idea that may just result in another layer of spin, that happens to move up the “correct source” closer to the top of the Google search results.
Some tips:
Watch this evolution - I got my popcorn ready
Check your news sources, and perhaps use more than one engine or social medial source.
When critical - do primary research, or research your sources to ensure quality results. Remember, you own what you post.
If you are using GenAI in your business for content (I’m talking to you influencers and marketing SMEs) - please QA your work - especially when using AI.
Here is the link to the article:
PS - I’m still recovering from an episode earlier in my digital broadcasting career when I mentioned to an NBC executive I’d figured out how to block commercials from getting into my TiVo. That was an awakening for my primitive cortex.