BuzzFeed Inc.
BZFD 171.33%
said it would rely on OpenAI creator ChatGPT to improve its tests and personalize some content for its audience, becoming the latest digital publisher to embrace artificial intelligence.
In a memo to employees sent Thursday morning, reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Chief Executive Jonah Peretti said he intends for AI to play a bigger role in the company’s editorial and business operations this year.
In one instance, the company said the new AI-powered test would produce individualized results.
For example, a quiz to create a personal romantic comedy might ask questions like, “Choose a trope for your rom-com,” and “Tell us an endearing flaw you have.” The quiz would produce a unique, shareable script based on the person’s answers, BuzzFeed said.
Mr. Peretti hopes AI will help the creative process and improve the company’s content, while humans play a role in providing ideas, “cultural currency,” and “inspiring inspiration,” he wrote in his memo. In 15 years, he wrote, he expects AI and data to help “create, personalize, and animate the content itself,” rather than just curating existing content.
BuzzFeed, which went public in late 2021 through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition firm, last year moved to shrink its news division as it sought to make the business profitable, saying it would double in size the network of its creator. The company is getting paid millions of dollars by the parent Facebook Meta Platforms Inc.
to help generate creative content for Facebook and Instagram, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
BuzzFeed shares more than doubled in value Thursday, trading at $2.18 by mid-afternoon in New York. The stock is down more than 75% since the company went public.
BuzzFeed remains focused on human-generated journalism in its newsroom, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
BuzzFeed’s move comes as ChatGPT, the new chatbot technology from the OpenAI research lab, is generating buzz among consumers and businesses alike. Some publishers say they are just beginning to discuss the use of AI technology, while others are already experimenting with it.
Digital technology publisher CNET, for example, recently ran a test using in-house AI technology to help editors create explainers on financial services topics. CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo said this week that the publisher had paused its test, which led to the publication of 77 stories, after finding a number of factual errors.
Microsoft corp.
MSFT 2.09%
which has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, plans to incorporate artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT into all of its products, Chief Executive Satya Nadella said last week.
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s new artificially intelligent chatbot, can write essays on complex topics. The WSJ’s Joanna Stern went back to high school AP Literature for a day to see if she could pass the class using only AI. Illustration photo: Elena Scotti
Write to Alexandra Bruell at [email protected]
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