By Stuart Fagg, Director of Product, Publishing at Nine
What is generative AI?
A cognitive industrial revolution? An overhyped fantasy? A destructive force that will change humanity forever? Skynet? Our future overlord?
Whatever your take on it, there’s no doubt the rise of generative AI has brought about a seismic shift in how we think about consumer experiences and human/digital interface interaction.
For those of us working at the intersection of journalism, data and technology, the emergence of generative AI is both an opportunity to create more flexible, individualised content discovery and consumption experiences and to innovate in the product experience.
It’s worth noting that the use of AI and machine learning in digital news media isn’t new news. My first contact with it was around 10 years ago, experimenting with using AI to deliver predictive content recommendations that connected the right content with the right customer at the right time.
However, the accelerating development of generative AI we’ve experienced in the past two years or so represents a huge shift – from analysis and prediction to creation.
That brings with it opportunities and challenges. Some of the well-documented missteps caused by AI-generated content bring those challenges into sharp relief.
So how are we approaching this new landscape?
In answering that question, it’s critical to note that the mastheads I have the privilege of working on have a deep history of journalism that stretches back almost 200 years.
And it’s also worth considering that our primary business model today – digital subscriptions – hinges upon the quality, trusted, transparent, public interest journalism that built our brands, as well as the modern, interactive, personalised product experience our customers deserve.
We are already using AI in a number of ways. One example is our audio article feature, which transforms text content into consumable audio. You can see it in action on any story on the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review websites.
How we decide where AI is deployed is driven by customer needs – not the need to add AI to everything. There are countless examples of customer experiences that use AI but don’t create a lasting user benefit.
In the development of our brand new Good Food app, we created a proof-of-concept tool for users to scan the contents of their fridge and get recipes. Sounds cool, but our user testing found that customers likely wouldn’t engage with it.
With that in mind, we’re turning our attention to three areas of exploration where AI provides the foundation for a user-centred experience:
How might we create multiple formats based on an original piece of journalism? Think summaries, key points, audio summaries, visual stories.
How might we help our newsrooms – via assistive, rather than generative AI – in a way that streamlines their experience but retains and protects the craft and skill intrinsic to premium, quality journalism?
How might we make it easier for our customers to discover the content and experiences that matter to them, thereby increasing the value exchange between us?
At Nine Publishing, we are taking an experimental and interactive approach to how we leverage the opportunity generative AI presents to connect our audiences with our premium journalism.
But maintaining the voice, quality and principles that drive our customers’ trust is at the core of our approach.
