May 19, 2023 - 7:00am
BuzzFeed intends to use AI to generate headlines, quizzes and identity-based content to help it reach multicultural audiences in an “authentic voice”, an investor call revealed. During a conference with potential investors on May 11th, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti argued that AI was an “exciting new creativity tool” that could be used for “imagination, storytelling and entertainment”.
Claiming that AI would replace the “majority of static content”, Peretti was bullish about BuzzFeed’s future, despite the closure of its news division late last month. “Audiences will take more control of when, how, and whether they consume news,” he said. “Conviction about this prediction is why we made the difficult decision to wind down BuzzFeed News“.
Part of BuzzFeed’s new AI offering are chatbots that serve as shopping assistants, “personalised” articles, and games which include an AI coach that tests users to see if they “have what it takes” to be an online influencer. Seeking to monetise “cultural moments” such as “Latine Heritage Month”, “Hiking with Rappers” and Pride, BuzzFeed also plans to deepen its outreach with the black, Latino and Asian communities through AI. In one example, the company states that it has “invested” in the “Latine community” through identity-focused brands and a “network of Latine creators”. “We see creators, AI and moments as intersectional,” concluded one BuzzFeed executive.
In the journalistic sphere, BuzzFeed executives told investors that AI will replace “the majority of static content”. In addition to tools that will convert “community submissions into complete articles”, AI will “generate hundreds of articles in a second” instead of “10 ideas in a minute”. “Our team members can talk directly to an AI chatbot to progress their creative ideas,” said Marcela Martin, BuzzFeed President. “And earlier this year, our product team rolled out an exciting new feature that leverages AI to automatically suggest SEO headlines for our article based on other headlines”.
BuzzFeed Inc., which owns several publications such as HuffPost, Complex and Tasty, shut down its news division last month. Prior to closing, the publication had been discreetly publishing AI-generated articles as well as quizzes. As Futurism reported, around 40 or so AI-written travel guide pieces surfaced, which included strikingly similar headlines such as “I know what you’re thinking: isn’t Stockholm that freezing, gloomy city up in the north that nobody cares about?” and “Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. ‘Brewster? Never heard of it'”.
Since it listed in 2011, BuzzFeed Inc has lost 90% of its value. The company’s move towards AI underlines the pressure facing the digital media industry more broadly. As BuzzFeed executives told investors last week, the company believes the industry has reached another “inflection point” on the Internet, with AI serving as a means to reduce fixed costs. “Creators on their own get burned out, lack community, and don’t have a way to establish their trustworthiness and relevance,” said Peretti. But AI “will allow us to innovate and collaborate with our clients and partners on a new frontier in media”.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe‘Latine heritage month’
There are genuinely a cohort of people out there who would rather die than say the word ‘Latino’
Even more so ‘latina’, because that would also acknowledge the existence of the w-word, you know, ‘women’.
Even more so ‘latina’, because that would also acknowledge the existence of the w-word, you know, ‘women’.
‘Latine heritage month’
There are genuinely a cohort of people out there who would rather die than say the word ‘Latino’
Interestingly, it appears Unherd is poised to try a very different approach to making a profit from internet journalism.
Yesterday, a series of links appeared at the top of the Unherd home page that divided up Unherd content. I tried the links and some didn’t work which, I suspect, is why they do not appear today. The most interesting link was “Unherd Club”. If you join Unherd Club you receive discounts to in-person events at the club and on-line access to recordings of those events, among other perks.
Regular readers of Unherd will have seen advertisements for upcoming Unherd Club events, such as a discussion between Paul Kingsnorth and Mary Harrington, and a non-woke comedy hour. Also included in Unherd Club content is the interview with Kathleen Stock. Eleven minutes of that interview appeared on the publicly available Unherd TV youtube channel, but not the whole interview.
It appears Unherd will now be charging a subscription for its best interviews. I don’t know what type of content, if any, will now appear for free on Unherd TV. The cost for Unherd Club membership: 150 pounds per year (can be paid in monthly installments). It wasn’t clear whether the 150 pounds also gets you a subscription to the Unherd online magazine or if that is extra.
I wonder how many people have enough disposable income to pay 150 pounds (or more) per year, and are sufficiently interested in Unherd Club content to pay that much? I wonder who Unherd’s main target audience is?
Buzzfeed is enlisting AI to write woke clickbait for almost free. Unherd is producing quality content and, it appears, intends to charge premium pricing. Two different approaches to the same monetization problem. I wonder who (if anyone) will win?
I took a friend to an event at the UnHerd Club – Matt Goodwin and Claire Fox. We had dinner downstairs too. Excellent evening and one I intend to do more often. I think it was £20 each for the tickets so a unlimited access for £150 seems reasonable. Especially as you are paying to support the UnHerd endeavour.
EDIT: in fact I just subscribed. The link is working now.
I was sent an email inviting me to subscribe to Unherd Club. I simply can’t afford it, being on my uppers at the moment. I like the Unherd site a good deal, though I would love to see its range extended to more concentrated factual news pieces as well as op-ed.
That’s simply because I really can’t find any newspaper that does news any more. Even in the erstwhile broadsheets, news is written as op-ed, op-ed is written as gossip, and all of it is sourced from Twitter, which both government and media seem to mistake for the voice of the public.
I took a friend to an event at the UnHerd Club – Matt Goodwin and Claire Fox. We had dinner downstairs too. Excellent evening and one I intend to do more often. I think it was £20 each for the tickets so a unlimited access for £150 seems reasonable. Especially as you are paying to support the UnHerd endeavour.
EDIT: in fact I just subscribed. The link is working now.
I was sent an email inviting me to subscribe to Unherd Club. I simply can’t afford it, being on my uppers at the moment. I like the Unherd site a good deal, though I would love to see its range extended to more concentrated factual news pieces as well as op-ed.
That’s simply because I really can’t find any newspaper that does news any more. Even in the erstwhile broadsheets, news is written as op-ed, op-ed is written as gossip, and all of it is sourced from Twitter, which both government and media seem to mistake for the voice of the public.
Interestingly, it appears Unherd is poised to try a very different approach to making a profit from internet journalism.
Yesterday, a series of links appeared at the top of the Unherd home page that divided up Unherd content. I tried the links and some didn’t work which, I suspect, is why they do not appear today. The most interesting link was “Unherd Club”. If you join Unherd Club you receive discounts to in-person events at the club and on-line access to recordings of those events, among other perks.
Regular readers of Unherd will have seen advertisements for upcoming Unherd Club events, such as a discussion between Paul Kingsnorth and Mary Harrington, and a non-woke comedy hour. Also included in Unherd Club content is the interview with Kathleen Stock. Eleven minutes of that interview appeared on the publicly available Unherd TV youtube channel, but not the whole interview.
It appears Unherd will now be charging a subscription for its best interviews. I don’t know what type of content, if any, will now appear for free on Unherd TV. The cost for Unherd Club membership: 150 pounds per year (can be paid in monthly installments). It wasn’t clear whether the 150 pounds also gets you a subscription to the Unherd online magazine or if that is extra.
I wonder how many people have enough disposable income to pay 150 pounds (or more) per year, and are sufficiently interested in Unherd Club content to pay that much? I wonder who Unherd’s main target audience is?
Buzzfeed is enlisting AI to write woke clickbait for almost free. Unherd is producing quality content and, it appears, intends to charge premium pricing. Two different approaches to the same monetization problem. I wonder who (if anyone) will win?
So we wont notice a difference in the content then? its all group “think” stuff anyway (saying what’s fashionable while pretending you’re the resistance)
So we wont notice a difference in the content then? its all group “think” stuff anyway (saying what’s fashionable while pretending you’re the resistance)
Find an AI bot that will short its stock for you and you’ll clean up.
Find an AI bot that will short its stock for you and you’ll clean up.
That is a big change. Putting intelligence in Buzzfeed content creation, even articial one, should be a major step forward.
That is a big change. Putting intelligence in Buzzfeed content creation, even articial one, should be a major step forward.
Seems to me they will just be stealing other people’s content then serving it up as their own.
Seems to me they will just be stealing other people’s content then serving it up as their own.
AI was an “exciting new creativity tool” that could be used for “imagination, storytelling and entertainment”.
sure….Crossroads at Midnight stuff…
”(Mississippi Bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads of Highways 49 and 61 in exchange for becoming the greatest Bluesman of all time. ** ‘What Robert Johnson did record complimented these tales quite well. A few of his titles included “Hellhound on My Trail,” “Cross Road Blues,” “Up Jumped the Devil,” and “Me and the Devil Blues.”)”
See – When God made Man from dust and gave him a soul, God is perfect – and even giving man Free Will to do evil if he chose, the creator still was perfect, and so goodness fills us. Evil may take our will if we let it – but goodness is innate if we track true.
Man created AI. We are not pure good – we have bad, evil even, in us. And through that Satan works, and taints out Hubristic creation. As God has not put his hand on this creation, surely Satan has… Look at some AI Art! Dark – you can see the evil back in there peering out… AI will soon perfect hiding that – the Devils greatest power is his ability of making people think he does not exist – but he does, and soon he will be walking amongst us…. telling us lies and stories to catch us…..meeting us at the crossroads we did not even know we were at….
You make an interesting point: AI “art” is uniformly sinister. But then I am getting on a bit and I sometimes wonder if seeing “darkness” everywhere is a symptom of old age.
You make an interesting point: AI “art” is uniformly sinister. But then I am getting on a bit and I sometimes wonder if seeing “darkness” everywhere is a symptom of old age.
AI was an “exciting new creativity tool” that could be used for “imagination, storytelling and entertainment”.
sure….Crossroads at Midnight stuff…
”(Mississippi Bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads of Highways 49 and 61 in exchange for becoming the greatest Bluesman of all time. ** ‘What Robert Johnson did record complimented these tales quite well. A few of his titles included “Hellhound on My Trail,” “Cross Road Blues,” “Up Jumped the Devil,” and “Me and the Devil Blues.”)”
See – When God made Man from dust and gave him a soul, God is perfect – and even giving man Free Will to do evil if he chose, the creator still was perfect, and so goodness fills us. Evil may take our will if we let it – but goodness is innate if we track true.
Man created AI. We are not pure good – we have bad, evil even, in us. And through that Satan works, and taints out Hubristic creation. As God has not put his hand on this creation, surely Satan has… Look at some AI Art! Dark – you can see the evil back in there peering out… AI will soon perfect hiding that – the Devils greatest power is his ability of making people think he does not exist – but he does, and soon he will be walking amongst us…. telling us lies and stories to catch us…..meeting us at the crossroads we did not even know we were at….
What could possibly go wrong?
What could possibly go wrong?
Very interesting article. BuzzFeed seems unprepared to accept defeat. AI will not rescue it =_=. The fact I’m not terribly sad about BuzzFeed replacing writers with AI content says something…
That said, using AI (followed by human editing and selection) to make fun quizzes could actually be a cool idea. AI could scan many databases on personal characteristics (e.g., personality traits, career features etc) instantly: think of it like a factor analysis tool but with all statistical figures interpreted for the user. Hmmm…
Very interesting article. BuzzFeed seems unprepared to accept defeat. AI will not rescue it =_=. The fact I’m not terribly sad about BuzzFeed replacing writers with AI content says something…
That said, using AI (followed by human editing and selection) to make fun quizzes could actually be a cool idea. AI could scan many databases on personal characteristics (e.g., personality traits, career features etc) instantly: think of it like a factor analysis tool but with all statistical figures interpreted for the user. Hmmm…
Instead of just reading like it’s been generated by AI anyway?
¿Que coño es ´latine´?