The Impact of AI on Journalism - Challenges and Opportunities

Attending the workshop were comrade Le Quoc Minh, member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association; representatives of leaders, journalists, reporters, and editors of central and local press agencies.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Director of the Center for Journalism Training - Vietnam Journalists Association Nguyen Thi Hai Van said that in the 4.0 era, when artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an indispensable part in many areas of social life, the press, with its role as a bridge of information between the public and events, cannot be outside that trend.

AI not only changes the way journalism is done, but also brings unprecedented opportunities and challenges to journalism today. In terms of opportunities, AI helps journalists synthesize and analyze data faster, helping journalists save time and effort in the process of producing news and articles.

In addition, AI helps newsrooms select content that suits the needs of each group of readers, thereby increasing the interactivity and attractiveness of press products. Thanks to that, journalists will bring readers the news they want in a more personal way, covering more topics.

However, the opportunities and challenges brought by AI are not small, requiring press agencies, journalists and journalists to have thorough training and preparation to use AI effectively, while ensuring reliability and ethics in information transmission.

Analyzing and evaluating the challenges and opportunities, the future of journalism in the AI ​​era, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper Le Quoc Minh affirmed that it is undeniable that technology in general and AI in particular play an important role in the modern information world.

However, the use of AI requires caution and a deep understanding of human and ethical issues. AI, despite its intelligence, still has many shortcomings, one of the biggest weaknesses is that AI does not always provide accurate information.

While AI has greatly assisted in content creation and news gathering, it also brings with it many risks that are often undetected. Most newsrooms say they are eager to use AI, but that it will have a negative impact on public trust in the news.

Over the past few decades, news organizations around the world have been struggling due to declining advertising and print subscription revenues. AI technologies, if applied and deployed early to maximize their power, can have a positive impact on helping news organizations develop sustainably.

The benefits of AI technology for press agencies can be seen in programming, finding patterns in data, suggesting content ideas, supporting editorial work, suggesting article ideas, creating a list of related articles to supplement an article, providing different versions of content for each audience, using AI in TV show hosting, etc.

Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper Le Quoc Minh also made suggestions on the use of AI for press agencies in the future, such as building ethical standards or standards for using AI because there are contents provided by AI that cannot be verified for accuracy, causing large-scale negative impacts on society.

There is a need to coordinate AI projects and organize training on AI skills to help journalists and press agencies provide reliable content, meet the needs of readers, avoid duplication and dependence on AI.

In the future, if AI is no longer an intermediary but directly delivers information to readers, the problem for press agencies and journalists is how to continuously adapt. They need to have an adaptive mindset and clearly understand what readers need and how AI affects trust.

What will the productivity and benefits of AI be for journalism in the future? The use of AI can lead to over-reliance on technology, reducing the role of humans in checking and verifying information.

But no matter how artificial technology develops, the most important thing is that we use AI effectively in the face of the opportunities and challenges for journalism.

At the workshop, representatives of press agencies, journalists, reporters, and editors shared, discussed, and clarified issues related to the challenges and opportunities of AI for journalism in the future, aiming to raise awareness and equip journalists with the necessary knowledge and skills about AI.

The workshop is a meaningful activity to improve journalism training for members and journalists to master AI technology and create journalism products according to professional principles.

The comments and contributions at the workshop will be practical and useful documents for professional training for journalists, contributing to the development of Vietnam's revolutionary press.