As AI becomes increasingly embedded in our daily lives, it’s becoming harder to tell whether journalistic content has been written by a human journalist or an AI bot. Whatever your thoughts on generative AI, it’s important to be able to tell the difference, particularly given the broader topic of AI ethics.
Whether you’re considering signing up for the latest journalism courses or simply want to be an informed media reader, here’s what you need to know.
Subtle differences in style
There’s no doubt that AI-generated content is becoming increasingly sophisticated, but subtle differences do exist between robotic and human-generated content, particularly when it comes to style. Human journalists tend to vary their paragraph and sentence length. AI models lack variability in their use of syntax.
Human journalists also tend to lean more heavily on verbs, using an action-oriented writing style that works to engage readers. AI models tend to use nouns more frequently.
Which content is more readable?
On the face of it, both AI and human-generated content are largely as readable as each other. However, human journalists, particularly those who have invested in quality journalism courses from providers such as https://schoolofjournalism.co.uk/, have a naturally more engaging and personal style. This means that many writers have their own unique style and flair that is very distinctively theirs.
Why does it matter?
AI technology is evolving at breakneck speed, which means that regulators, readers and practitioners need to understand the implications for journalistic content and the ethics around it. Many journalists fear that their careers could be limited, and readers fear that the content they read might not be ethical or factually correct. Many readers also intuitively know that they don’t want to read AI-generated content in the way that they want to read opinion pieces from their preferred writers.
With the industry changing so quickly, it will be interesting to see how AI continues to shape the landscape in the next year. And in the meantime, journalists continue to fight back with unique, quality and human content that truly resonates with their audiences.