Semaphore, a tech news startup founded by former BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith and former Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith (no relation), is now working with Microsoft (MSFT) and OpenAI to create news content using artificial intelligence (AI). Semaphore is the latest news organization to explore AI partnerships with tech companies as the media industry weighs the technology.
Through this partnership, Semaphore will launch a news product called Signals. Microsoft and Open AI“Semaphore offers readers diverse, sophisticated analysis and insights on the world's biggest stories,” Semaphore chief revenue officer Rachel Oppenheim said in a LinkedIn post today (February 5)..
Signals provides readers with a breaking news feed, while AI helps Semaphore's journalists compile information from news sources. Human editors monitor and fact-check all information and convert it into a presentable format for readers that links back to the original news source, Semaphore said in a statement. Semaphore is led by CEO Justin Smith, with Ben Smith as editor-in-chief.
The statement also said the way media organisations have published news through “stubs” for a decade does not address the challenges readers now face, noting that there is a huge amount of unregulated misinformation on social media sites like X, leaving publications and journalists struggling to reach their readers. “They are craving reliable information that social media no longer provides and different perspectives from around the world that they can't get from any single source,” Semaphore said.
The digital news industry (And sometimes it failsAs media outlets look to generate revenue outside of traditional advertising models, many publications are experimenting with AI as an efficient way to scale content production. Embracing AI while maintaining journalistic ethics has become a recurring topic as some publications, such as Sports Illustrated, have come under fire for publishing AI-generated articles without disclosing them. Smith's former employer, BuzzFeed, also dissolved its editorial department last year, but was exposed for publishing AI-generated articles as search engine optimization bait before it closed down.
Tech companies are eager to get into the news industry, but they face some challenges. For example, OpenAI already has partnerships with Axel Springer, which owns Politico and Business Insider, and the Associated Press. But late last year, The New York Times sued both OpenAI and its investor, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, alleging that the companies owe “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” for using Times content to train its AI models. OpenAI The answer was published They say the lawsuit is without merit.
