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.

How often, or little, they're used by employees to increase their efficiency and improve customer satisfaction. For IBM, the only way to make AI a core part of the workflow across entire companies is to take a cue from a decades-old office staple: email. It's dangerous to think of AI as a magic tool, said Daniel Hernandez, VP of data and AI at IBM, speaking at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Orlando, Florida last week. Instead, it should be seen as a strategy to empower staffers, helping them make more effective decisions through data while boosting employee experience. "Email gets no respect because it's boring," said Hernandez.

The Journalism AI report is based on a survey of 71 news organisations in 32 different countries regarding artificial intelligence and associated technologies. A wide range of journalists working with AI answered questions about their understanding of AI, how it was used in their newsrooms, and their views on the wider potential and risks for the news industry. What emerges from this research is that artificial intelligence (AI) is a significant part of journalism already but it is unevenly distributed. AI is giving journalists more power, but with that comes editorial and ethical responsibilities. The future impact of AI is uncertain but it has the potential for wide-ranging and profound influence on how journalism is made and consumed.