If done badly, AI-driven news could bring an even more dangerous erosion of editorial values than social media has – but the BBC wants to drive towards a better future.
Whatever is coming next in the UK news agenda, one thing is certain: everyone from political parties to media organisations are readying their digital information machines. In the UK almost half of us get our news from social platforms, and this change seems to have changed our society with it.
Terms like “fake news,” “misinformation” and “filter bubbles” are often used to express concern about what is happening. And yet, this awareness comes just as the era of social media itself may be giving way to something even more disruptive: the era of the voice-activated AI Assistant.
If that term, AI Assistant, sounds futuristic to you, it’s worth reflecting that that they’ve actually snuck up on us already. After cut-price device sales and millions spent on ads, a quarter of British adults now have at least one smart speaker, running Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple Siri, in their homes.
What do these devices offer to people?
Quite simply, utility. Through them, an “AI” platform, controlled from afar by a tech firm, becomes the point of easy access for all sorts of everyday life experiences. Including, checking the news.
So far, news has actually been a fairly basic experience on smart speakers. News providers, such as the BBC and many others, supply straightforward audio bulletins. But AI news experiences are likely to change, and the way trusted providers like the BBC act now will influence how it plays out.
The change could be exciting. Technologies like natural language understanding, a form of AI programming, allow something that radio news bulletins, perhaps the most traditional of all formats, have so far resisted: audio news can suddenly become interactive.
At the BBC, with almost 100 years of radio news behind us, we are excited too. And yet, with an editorial hat on, we also foresee some clear dangers to avoid.
In particular, just like social media algorithms, AI Assistants will make choices for us, seeing us as consumers. It’s a fair bet that, at the very least, all those concerns around trust from the social media age will persist in AI-driven news.
Everything depends on who makes the choices around news stories, for what ends, and that audiences know that those decisions are being made by organisations they can trust – like the BBC.
We’ve decided to experiment relatively quickly in this space, to start to learn how to serve our public mission best from early on. This week, people who ask their Alexa assistant to “Give Me BBC News,” will now get something a little different. Their audio news bulletin will now be interactive, a UK first. But crucially it will be interactive in a controlled way, curated by BBC editors.
The functionality will be fairly simple at first, allowing you to get through to the stories of most interest by saying “Next,” for example. But most importantly for us, you will also be able to say the key phrase, “More from the BBC” on selected stories - and we’ll then guide you to the explainers, investigations and in-depth reportage that the BBC is rightly known for.
The tone of the new service should also feel fresh: the producers of award-winning podcasts like Brexitcast and the Global News Podcast have helped style it.
(Note: It’s on Alexa devices only, at first, because other providers haven’t yet been able to help us to technically publish such an experience on their platforms. “Give me BBC News” will still get you a BBC briefing, albeit not yet interactive, on all smart speakers, however.)
This initial service is an early step, but as the AI revolution deepens, we are also developing further and more profound ways to meet it, both editorially and using technology. Watch this space.
What will distinguish the BBC approach to news on AI Assistants? The answer is the same as it would be when talking about radio or TV in times gone by: our public service editorial values. We hope to work with the rest of the UK digital industry to make sure the news remains trusted in the AI era.
The possibilities of AI Assistants are exciting but we must also strive to replicate - and even deepen - the reassurance the public have had for almost a century that when it really matters, in moments for example of national crisis or triumph, our audiences have a clear way to turn to services they can trust.
