New York
CNN
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Media outlet CNET said on Wednesday it had issued corrections to a number of stories, some of which it called “substantial”, after it used an artificial intelligence-based tool to help write dozens of stories. .
The outlet has since paused use of the AI tool to generate stories, CNET editor Connie Guglielmo said in a editorial Wednesday.
The disclosure comes after CNET was previously called out publicly for quietly using AI to write articles and later for errors. Although using AI to automate reporting isn’t new – The Associated Press started doing it almost a decade ago – the issue has gained new attention amid the rise of ChatGPTa new viral AI chatbot tool that can quickly generate essays, stories and song lyrics in response to user prompts.
Guglielmo said CNET used an “in-house designed AI engine”, not ChatGPT, to help write 77 stories published since November. She said it represented about 1% of the total content published on CNET during the same period, and was done as part of a “test” project for the CNET Money team “to help publishers create a set of basic explanations on topics related to financial services. .
Some titles of stories written using the AI tool include: “Does a home equity loan affect private mortgage insurance?” and “How to close a bank account.”
“Editors first generated the outlines of the stories, then developed, added to, and edited the AI drafts before publishing them,” Guglielmo wrote. “After one of the AI-assisted stories was rightly cited for factual errors, the CNET Money editorial team performed a full audit.”
The result of the audit, she said, was that CNET identified additional stories that needed fixing, “with a small number needing substantial fixing.” GameSpot also identified several other stories with “minor issues such as incomplete company names, transposed numbers, or language that our editors considered vague.”
A correction, which was added at the end of an article titled “What is compound interest? » states that the story initially gave wildly inaccurate personal finance advice. “An earlier version of this article suggested that a saver would earn $10,300 after one year by depositing $10,000 into a savings account that earns 3% compound interest annually. The article has been corrected to clarify that the saver would earn $300 in addition to their principal amount of $10,000,” the correction reads.
Another correction suggests that the AI tool has been plagiarized. “We have replaced sentences that were not entirely original,” according to the correction added to a article how to close a bank account.
Guglielmo did not indicate how many of the 77 published stories needed fixing, or how many “substantial” fixes were needed versus more “minor issues”. Guglielmo said stories that have been corrected include an editor’s note explaining what was changed.
CNET did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Despite the issues, Guglielmo has left the door open to resume using the AI tool. “We have taken a break and will resume using the AI tool when we are confident that the tool and our editorial processes will prevent human and AI error,” she said.
Guglielmo also said CNET made it more clear to readers which stories were compiled using the AI engine. The outlet has come under fire from critics on social media for not making it clear to its audience that “By CNET Money Staff” meant it was written using AI tools. The new signature is simply: “By CNET Money”.