Post by account_disabled on Feb 27, 2024 3:32:52 GMT -5
Microsoft is working with media startup Semafor to use its artificial intelligence chatbot to help develop news, part of a journalism effort that comes as the tech giant faces a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from the New York Times. As part of the deal, Microsoft will pay an undisclosed sum of money to Semafor to sponsor a breaking news service called "Signals." The companies declined to share financial details, but the amount of money is "substantial" for Semafor's business, a person familiar with the matter said. Signals will offer a source of breaking news and analysis of big stories, with around a dozen posts per day. The goal is to offer different points of view from around the world, a key focus for Semafor since its launch in 2022. Semafor co-founder Ben Smith emphasized that Signals will be written entirely by journalists and that artificial intelligence will provide an investigative tool to inform publications. Microsoft on Monday also announced collaborations with journalist organizations, including the Craig Newmark School of Journalism, the Online News Association and the GroundTruth Project.
The partnerships come at a time when media companies are increasingly concerned about generative AI and its potential threat to their businesses. News publishers are grappling with how to use AI to improve their work and stay on the cutting edge of technology, while also fearing losing traffic, and therefore revenue, to AI chatbots, which Paraguay WhatsApp Number can produce text and information similar to humans in seconds. In December, the New York Times filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging that the tech companies have exploited millions of its articles to build their artificial intelligence chatbots, and seeking billions of dollars in damages. Announcement Gina Chua, Executive Editor at Semafor, has been involved in the development of Semafor's AI research tools, which are powered by Microsoft's ChatGPT and Bing. “Journalism has always used technology, whether it be carrier pigeons, the telegraph or anything else. . . “This represents a real opportunity, a set of tools that are really a quantum leap over many of the other tools that have come out,” Chua said. For a breaking news event, Semafor journalists will use artificial intelligence tools to quickly search for reports and comments from other news sources around the world in multiple languages.
A Signals post could include perspectives from Chinese, Indian or Russian media, for example, with Semafor reporters summarizing and contextualizing different points of view, while citing their sources. Noreen Gillespie, a former Associated Press journalist, joined Microsoft three months ago to build relationships with news companies. "Journalists need to embrace these tools to survive and thrive for the next generation," she said. Semafor was founded by Ben Smith, former editor of BuzzFeed, and Justin Smith, former CEO of Bloomberg Media. Semafor, which is free to read, is funded by wealthy individuals, including 3G Capital founder Jorge Paulo Lemann and KKR co-founder Henry Kravis. The company earned more than $10 million in revenue in 2023 and has more than 500,000 subscriptions to its free newsletters. Justin Smith said Semafor was “very close to turning a profit” in the fourth quarter of 2023. “What we're trying to pursue is this really weird space of breaking news on the Internet now, where there are really fragmented, rushed, fragmented efforts to get the first sentence of a story into search engines. . . and then never making any effort to provide context,” Ben Smith said. “We are trying to go the other way. Here are the confirmed facts.
The partnerships come at a time when media companies are increasingly concerned about generative AI and its potential threat to their businesses. News publishers are grappling with how to use AI to improve their work and stay on the cutting edge of technology, while also fearing losing traffic, and therefore revenue, to AI chatbots, which Paraguay WhatsApp Number can produce text and information similar to humans in seconds. In December, the New York Times filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging that the tech companies have exploited millions of its articles to build their artificial intelligence chatbots, and seeking billions of dollars in damages. Announcement Gina Chua, Executive Editor at Semafor, has been involved in the development of Semafor's AI research tools, which are powered by Microsoft's ChatGPT and Bing. “Journalism has always used technology, whether it be carrier pigeons, the telegraph or anything else. . . “This represents a real opportunity, a set of tools that are really a quantum leap over many of the other tools that have come out,” Chua said. For a breaking news event, Semafor journalists will use artificial intelligence tools to quickly search for reports and comments from other news sources around the world in multiple languages.
A Signals post could include perspectives from Chinese, Indian or Russian media, for example, with Semafor reporters summarizing and contextualizing different points of view, while citing their sources. Noreen Gillespie, a former Associated Press journalist, joined Microsoft three months ago to build relationships with news companies. "Journalists need to embrace these tools to survive and thrive for the next generation," she said. Semafor was founded by Ben Smith, former editor of BuzzFeed, and Justin Smith, former CEO of Bloomberg Media. Semafor, which is free to read, is funded by wealthy individuals, including 3G Capital founder Jorge Paulo Lemann and KKR co-founder Henry Kravis. The company earned more than $10 million in revenue in 2023 and has more than 500,000 subscriptions to its free newsletters. Justin Smith said Semafor was “very close to turning a profit” in the fourth quarter of 2023. “What we're trying to pursue is this really weird space of breaking news on the Internet now, where there are really fragmented, rushed, fragmented efforts to get the first sentence of a story into search engines. . . and then never making any effort to provide context,” Ben Smith said. “We are trying to go the other way. Here are the confirmed facts.