BuzzFeed Will Use Artificial Intelligence To Generate Content

Daniel ChaitinJanuary 26, 2023

One digital media company is creating a lot of buzz because it plans to feed its readers content made with artificial intelligence.

A memo to BuzzFeed On Thursday, staff revealed that they would soon use tools created by OpenAI. OpenAI is the creator of ChatGPT Chatbot which has taken the world by storm in multiple sectors.

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said “AI inspired content” We will continue to make progress in this direction “enhancing the quiz experience, informing our brainstorming, and personalizing our content for our audience.”

Peretti assured that humans will continue to be part of the editorial process. However, they will soon be able use computer technology to improve their work.

“Our industry will expand beyond AI-powered curation (feeds), to AI-powered creation (content),” Peretti wrote. “AI opens up a new era of creativity, where creative humans like us play a key role providing the ideas, cultural currency, inspired prompts, IP, and formats that come to life using the newest technologies.”

The memo was obtained by the Verge published it in full.

News of BuzzFeed’s new direction appears to have been received well on Wall Street. BuzzFeed Inc. shares rose by approximately 150% following The Wall Street Journal broke the story.

BuzzFeed, which was established in 2006, has carved a niche for itself online with news reporting and listicles. The company has faced many challenges in recent years.

In 2021, it took steps to reduce its news arm’s losses of approximately $10 million per year. according to CNBC. Peretti announced December 2022, that BuzzFeed would be merging with a special-purpose acquisition company. cut 12% of its workforceTo be exact, about 180 employees. “weather an economic downturn.”

ChatGPT is making headlines all the time, regardless of whether it is stirring fresh concerns about cheating In academic institutions using computer-generated essays, or to generate a speech for the House floor advocating for a bill To create an American-Israeli artificial intelligence center.

Peretti indicated that BuzzFeed would launch new content in February. He would also share a preview of it during a staff meeting Thursday.

“In publishing, AI can benefit both content creators and audiences, inspiring new ideas and inviting audience members to co-create personalized content,” Peretti wrote in a memo. “When you see this work in action it is pretty amazing.”

Some journalists were less excited about the news. This suggests the rise of artificial intelligence as a sign for the media sector. Samit Sarker is the deputy managing editor at Polygon. tweeted, “a sentence to put on journalism’s tombstone if I’ve ever seen one: ‘BuzzFeed remains focused on human-generated journalism in its newsroom, a spokeswoman said Thursday.’”