If AI models are allowed to freely read, summarize, and rewrite news content, what happens to journalism's business models? Why would people click on links or visit publishers' websites? And would AI companies even have the incentive to strike deals with multiple publishers? These were the top questions Jeff Jarvis addressed in the second part of my conversation with him.
Jarvis has been the director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and the author of "The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and its Lessons for the Age of the Internet." He also co-hosts the podcasts "This Week in Google" and "AI Inside".
Jarvis points out that the reliance on content as a sole purpose for revenue generation is not a sustainable path forward with the rise of generative AI. As text generators like ChatGPT can produce text with such speed, he discusses how we must radically rethink the core elements of journalism.
With AI commoditizing writing, Jarvis encourages focusing on distinctly human qualities such as trust, authority, and public service that broaden the value of journalism beyond the 'business of content.'
🎧 Listen to the full conversation available now on Apple, Spotify, Google, and other major podcast platforms.
Rethinking the journalism business model in the age of AI: In Conversation with Jeff Jarvis (Part Two)