Newsrooms have five years to embrace artificial intelligence or they risk becoming irrelevant

A new report published this week (18 November 2019) looking at the intersection of AI and journalism has issued a warning to global newsrooms: collaborate with your competitors or face extinction. A global survey of journalism and artificial intelligence' is a joint project between Polis, the international journalism think-tank at London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Google News Initiative, who has funded the research. It surveyed 71 international news organisations on their on use of artificial intelligence for editorial purposes across a seven-month period, showing that just 37 per cent of them have a dedicated AI strategy. Charlie Beckett, director, Polis, London School of Economics and Political Science, said that newsrooms have between two and five years to develop a meaningful strategy, or risk fading out of the digital landscape. "This is a marathon, not a sprint - but they've got to start running now," he said.