Start it up: Rolling Stone to trial AI-generated articles

Rock bible Rolling Stone and its sister publications will start turning to artificial intelligence to help write their articles.

Rolling Stone Australia.

Rock bible Rolling Stone and its sister publications will start turning to artificial intelligence to write their articles.

The Brag Media chief executive Luke Girgis, who runs the publishing group behind Rolling Stone Australia, announced plans to “start experimenting with AI in our ­writing” in a post on LinkedIn on Thursday.

In a first for Australian journalism, a Brag Media spokesman said the trial would happen across all of its mastheads including Rolling Stone Australia, entertainment trade publication Variety Australia, The Music Network and more.

 

The editorial team plans to use AI technology, such as ChatGPT, as a “tool set” for journalists to ­“increase output” and says it will not publish articles that are solely AI-generated. “I don’t think it will replace journalists, because the minute you start becoming just AI content, you lose credibility of the masthead,” the spokesperson said, noting that articles will go through the same due diligence process applied to all writing, like fact-checking and checking for plagiarism.

“This means that all AI-supported content will have that human touch by our journalists and editors before publishing.”

Integrating AI into its publishing would be a “game changer” for expediting content, the spokesperson said. “If you’re a really great reporter and are working on a story, and you start throwing facts and telling ChatGPT what to do, the ability to turnaround and publishing a story is much faster.

“It’s about creating a toolkit for writers to be able to do more with their time. Ultimately, that means journos’ output will be higher and their value will be far greater. I think, financially, they’ll be rewarded for that.”

Many industries are grappling with what technology such as ChatGPT will mean for their future. The technology, led by the Elon Musk-founded research body OpenAI, can generate complex code, academic-level essays, and articles in seconds.

The Brag Media will be “very transparent” about what was written with the assistance of AI, and will acknowledge articles that have been AI-generated at the footer of stories. It is the first Australian publisher to experiment with this technology. In the US, tech news outlet CNET has been quietly employing “automation technology” on its financial explainer articles since November.