The boss was talking the other day about his recent experiments, using artificial intelligence (aka AI) to write news stories. He didn’t say he’s thinking of replacing his reporters with AI, but it’s unlikely the idea hasn’t crossed his mind.

Why wouldn’t it?

Times have been better in ye olde newspaper business. Costs climb, but revenue doesn’t. In fact it drifts away, as advertisers find they can spend less (or nothing) by advertising online. The Town of Slave Lake made exactly that decision a few years ago. They used to rely on the local newspaper, but as soon as the province changed the rules, off they scampered.

So, with less revenue, newspapers have to cut costs to survive. And if AI can write a half-decent story, some struggling newspaper owner is going to give it a try. Probably all sorts of online ‘news’ stories are already produced that way.

Cut a salary and let AI do the work. It’s a dismal prospect, but if the results are acceptable and the price is right….

Looking at it from the point of view of a journalist likely to be put out of work, it’s a lousy idea. For readers too, probably.

Surely there is value in local journalism, done by real people who are invested in a community, attend events, know and care about the people they are covering, etc.

Time will tell, of course.

In the meantime, thanks for doing your part to seeing your local news rag survive and even prosper.

Now how would an AI robot have expressed that? More simply? More clearly? More amusingly?