Gelisim News

“News production with artificial intelligence is not possible without human control”

With the developing technology, the concept of "Artificial Intelligence" provides convenience in many sectors and in different areas of life. Discussions about whether artificial intelligence can do “journalism” are also on the agenda. Making statements on the subject, Asst. Prof. Dr. Özgür Evren Arık stated that artificial intelligence has the opportunity to access and categorize much more data than a human; however, news production with artificial intelligence is almost impossible without human supervision and control.

The usage areas of artificial intelligence are expanding day by day. Questions such as “Will it bring the end of some professions?” are also being discussed all over the world. Artificial intelligence, which is used in many sectors on the global stage, is also used in journalism. Hence, artificial intelligence exhibits a significant cooperation in the transmission and production of news. Asst. Prof. Dr. Özgür Evren Arık, a faculty member from Istanbul Gelisim University (IGU) Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Radio, Television and Cinema Department, stated that these developments bring ethical problems.

“Investigative journalism activities can be carried out in a healthy way with human intelligence”

One of the basic principles of journalism is to report the facts objectively, without distortion or censorship. There is a fundamental question whether artificial intelligence can become a machine that can think, learn, analyze and create instead of a journalist. Asst. Prof. Dr. Özgür Evren Arık: “Artificial intelligence has the ability to access and categorize much more data than a human, but news production with artificial intelligence is almost out of question without human supervision and control. In news production, 'investigative journalism' activities based on analysis and synthesis skills can be carried out in a healthy way with human intelligence. Moreover, artificial intelligence can only access digitized data. There is no artificial intelligence access to data other than digital data.”

“It is obvious that ethical problems can be encountered in artificial intelligence journalism”

Dr. Arık concluded his words as follows: “Artificial intelligence has a speed and efficiency far beyond human intelligence. This feature is an advantage for the rapid production of news, but it raises big question marks for 'independent journalism' in minds. It is crystal clear that ethical problems can be encountered in artificial intelligence journalism. It is a controversial issue to what extent the ethical practices that the journalism profession has refined over the centuries will be binding on the algorithm.’’