This is from the powerful must-read article by Paul Thomas, co-owner and managing director of Star News Group. He is a past president and life member of Country Press Australia.
“AI companies do not send reporters to council meetings. They do not sit through court hearings. They do not verify facts during floods, fires or elections. They do not employ the local journalist, the editor, the photographer or the creator who actually did the original work. But they increasingly want to scrape that work, absorb it into their systems, and profit from it as if it were their own…“
“We are already living through an era of misinformation, half-truths and outright falsehoods spreading across social media at extraordinary speed. Much of it is unchecked. Much of it is designed to inflame, divide and mislead. If AI systems now scrape reliable journalism, strip out the source, and serve up confident answers that people cannot easily verify, the danger only grows. The Canadian policy brief warns that when AI delivers answers drawn from journalism but stripped of source and context, the public’s ability to judge reliability is diminished.“
“That is a direct threat to democracy.“
“Democracy depends on trusted, checkable and accountable information. People need to know where a fact came from. They need to be able to judge the source, test its credibility and read further for themselves. If AI becomes a black box that swallows journalism and other original creative work, then spits out unattributed answers, the public loses one of its most important safeguards.“
Having supported our local newspaper with weekly voluntary contribution since February 2021, Paul’s words are close to my heart. Please, read the full article HERE, where the image credit is due.
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 