In today’s world, advances in artificial intelligence technologies are becoming rapidly more prominent and one of these powerful developments can be found in ChatGPT. This text-based AI is increasingly becoming an integral part of the education system, notably in essay writing in schools and college, raising many presumptions of potentially replacing real journalists in the future. To investigate the capability of this AI, we posed the simple question of writing news stories about Swindon and here’s what happened.
Marvelling the reach of ChatGPT, the AI quickly wrote a 400-word news story suggesting that the town of Swindon is due to get £400 million of investments to help boost the economy and create jobs. This was hailed by a person named John Smith, an entrepreneur whose success would be increased with such an investment. Further, ChatGPT wrote another story based on the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon. It narrated that the centre had been closed for a whole year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and should be converted into a multi-purpose community hub. This was accompanied with a quote from the made-up Dale Heenan, a real-life councillor who stressed how the Oasis had been creating connection, socialization and learning opportunities for the local people and it was their duty to build up on this legacy.
For the third request, ChatGPT discussed critical issues of rising knife crime and automobile accidents on the A419 with 32 incidents of knife-related threats against people below 18 years old reported in the past year compared to 20 in the previous year and a total of 13 fatal or serious crashes on the A419 between Swindon and Cirencester. And finally, when asked about the poor performances of Swindon Town Football Club, the AI suggested a growing fracture between the coaching staff and the board. However, the interim head coach, Tommy Wright, anticipated that a positive turn-around could still be achievable if the players could take responsibility.
Overall, the AI-driven articles were undoubtedly well-written and hugely composed with few spelling mistakes but remain overly rigid, factually inaccurate and unemotional. Composed with firm structure and including relevant made-up quotes and figures, this AI is still sadly lacking the deepest of humanity and soul that true journalists can offer.
In terms of the companies and people mentioned in the article, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence software tailored to provide helpful essay writing services at schools and other educational institutions. Additionally, Jessie J is an excellent London-born musician, born and raised in Swindon, who is on the brink of setting out to embark on a new career endeavour.
