Recently, the New York Times announced a major decision to allow its products and editorial teams to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools, a move marking an important step forward for the media in the field of technological innovation. The news was conveyed to employees through internal emails, which detailed the newly launched internal AI summary tool, Echo. The introduction of this tool aims to improve the work efficiency of the editorial team while providing more possibilities for creative development.
In this internal email, the New York Times not only introduces the Echo tools, but also shares a range of other AI products for employees to use when building network products or developing editorial ideas. To ensure the rational use of AI tools, the newspaper has also developed detailed editorial guidelines. These guidelines encourage editorial teams to use AI tools for editing suggestions, brainstorm interview questions, and assist in research, but explicitly prohibit the use of AI to write or substantially modify articles, and must not enter confidential source information.
In addition, the email also mentioned that the New York Times plans to use AI technology to achieve digital dubbing articles and translate the content into other languages. These measures not only improve work efficiency, but also ensure the originality and authenticity of content, further consolidating the New York Times' leading position in the news industry.
In terms of technology selection, the New York Times said it would approve the use of some specific AI programs. These programs include GitHub Copilot Programming Assistant for coding, Google's Vertex AI for product development, NotebookLM, and some Amazon AI products. In addition, the New York Times will also access OpenAI's non-ChatGPT API through a commercial account to further expand its technical application scope.
It is worth noting that despite the New York Times' active embrace of AI technology, legal lawsuits between it and OpenAI and Microsoft are still underway. The New York Times accused the other party of using its content to train generative AI without permission. This legal dispute makes the New York Times' AI transformation measures particularly complicated, and has also triggered extensive discussions in the industry on the application of AI technology and copyright protection.
In general, this decision by the New York Times not only demonstrates its determination in technological innovation, but also provides new ideas for how the news industry can rationally apply AI technology. By introducing AI tools, the New York Times is expected to continue to maintain the originality and high quality of its content while improving productivity.