It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC.

Good morning again, everyone.

Now we're turning to a question that's really relevant to the work we do here every day at the Brian Ler Show and elsewhere at WNYC.

How is artificial intelligence changing journalism?

We recently did a segment on AI in fiction.

Some of you heard it where the boundaries maybe feel a little clearer because it's a purely human creation, right?

A work of fiction.

But journalism is a little different.

It's so dependent on gathering, sorting, and synthesizing information that it's not always obvious to everybody where AI fits in or where it crosses a line. Because when we talk to

journalists on this show, there's an assumption baked in that they're reporting, the writing, the judgment, is all fundamentally human work. So what happens if that starts to shift? Now, to be clear, there are parts of journalism that AI can't really replicate, like going out into the world, knocking on doors, building trust with

sources. And let's assume for the moment that journalists ultimately write their own stories.

But a lot of the rest, like first drafts of articles, summarizing documents, editing copy,

even suggesting angles, can now be done or at least assisted by AI tools.

A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal by media reporter Isabella Simonetti profiles a Fortune

magazine editor Nick Lichtenberg, who has published more than 600 stories in about six months,

how? Mostly using AI to generate drafts. Those AI

assisted stories accounted for nearly 20% of Fortune's web traffic in the second half of last year.

Now, that's a relatively extreme case, and at the same time, there has been backlash.

The New York Times recently cut ties with a freelance review who used AI to help write a book review

that got considered plagiarism.

And there's been scrutiny around possible undisclosed AI use and opinion and personal essays,

even at top-tier outlets.

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