Italian paper prints fully-AI version, however to not ‘kill’ journalism

March 21, 2025

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Italian paper prints fully-AI version, however to not 'kill' journalism

In a world first, an Italian newspaper is printing a completely AI-generated version for a month in what its director stated Thursday was an experiment to "revitalize journalism, to not kill it."

Il Foglio, a every day broadsheet with an irreverent contact and a circulation of about 29,000, says it’s the first newspaper on the planet to print total editions created by synthetic intelligence, a nascent know-how that’s quickly altering how newsrooms function.

It started on Tuesday producing a four-page every day AI version in print and on-line, alongside its regular version, that includes about 22 articles and three editorials.

Put merely, the newspaper's 20-odd journalists ask a model of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot to jot down a narrative on a selected topic in a selected tone, and it produces a textual content utilizing info scraped off the web.

Examples this week included an evaluation of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's speeches, an editorial on the latest telephone name between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin—and a vogue story.

Il Foglio's director, Claudio Cerasa, defined to AFP the concept behind the undertaking and the way it’s going.

What do you wish to accomplish with this?

"The aim is twofold. On the one hand, to maneuver concept into observe. However, it's to check ourselves and thus perceive what the bounds of AI are, but additionally the alternatives, the boundaries that should be overcome and people that can’t be.

"All this could spring from a particular newspaper like ours, as a result of ours is a newspaper that has irreverent, ironic, artistic writing. We do issues that aren’t simply reproducible with a machine.

"It was a want to flaunt our being particular and experiment with one thing that nobody on the planet has experimented with, in a disruptive manner, creating debate, however above all, first trying ourselves to grasp how AI will be built-in with pure intelligence."

How does the method work in observe?

"Within the editorial assembly, many matters come up. A few of these matters are then coated not solely by the conventional newspaper, but additionally by the synthetic newspaper.

"Each query requested to AI comprises a request for a theme… a request for a tone: respectful, irreverent, scandalous, provocative. Ultimately we ask it to have the type of the paper.

"If there are too many errors, we alter articles (begin a brand new one). If there are simply few errors, although, we depart them, as a result of we additionally wish to perceive what the bounds are."

What classes have you ever realized from the primary few days?

"Synthetic intelligence exceeds all expectations. We now have realized it may well do issues that may compete with what a human does, however we have now realized that in the long term competitors should create larger effectivity.

"Innovation should be accepted, as a result of you may't cease it, it should be understood, ruled, and changed into a chance for progress.

"If someday there's a requirement for articles made solely with AI, it should be accepted. However that demand should enhance journalists' creativity, as a result of journalists must begin getting used to not doing issues {that a} machine may.

"So it's a strategy to revitalize journalism, to not kill it."

Are journalists within the newsroom anxious?

"No, everyone seems to be entertained, everyone seems to be curious and amongst different issues, it's attention-grabbing that with this experiment we're reaching a a lot bigger viewers. There are numerous individuals who, because of AI, are discovering the standard paper. The primary day we had a 60% rise in gross sales.

"It's no coincidence that no main newspaper has considered (doing) it, as a result of it’s clearly scary. Solely a newspaper like ours, which is considerably distinctive, can afford to do an experiment like this."

He added, "The articles written by human beings are higher, as a result of they at all times have one thing extra, they at all times have a component of creativity, of connection, of constructing unpredictable hyperlinks that AI doesn’t have."

What are readers saying?

"The readers are 90% entertained, 10% anxious as a result of they are saying 'Be sure you by no means depart your pure intelligence since you are higher.' However there's nobody who says the operation is silly and mindless.

"Everybody has understood the spirit."

© 2025 AFP

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