The editor of an Italian newspaper said its experiment with publishing a supplement entirely generated by AI every day for a month was a success, praising the AI system as a “collaborator” that could be quick, irreverent and ironic.

Il Foglio, a daily broadsheet newspaper with a staff of 22, published a four-page supplement called Foglio AI that was folded into the paper.

The experiment lasted for a month, finishing last week.

AI-generated journalism

The supplement included news, cultural topics, opinion and debate pieces simulated to represent both conservative and liberal viewpoints, concluding each day with politics, economics and simulated letters to the editor answered by the AI itself.

At launch, the paper said its journalists would limit themselves to asking questions and “reading the answers” from the purpose-built Foglio AI chatbot.

The staff gave the chatbot some tasks such as listening to a long speech by Italian president Giorgia Meloni and summarising it or writing a review of a 700-page text.

Il Foglio editor Claudio Cerasa said the AI system would continue to write a section of the paper once a week and would be used to supplement the human staff in writing specialised articles, such as one on astronomy published on Friday.

“It’s like having a new collaborator, an additional element of the editorial staff,” Cerasa wrote in an interview with the AI.

The paper decided in January it wanted to conduct a “daring” experiment that would see how AI could be utilised, rather than shrinking from its implications, which have often focused on job losses or copyright infringement.

“Artificial intelligence cannot be fought, it cannot be hidden, and for this reason we decided… to study it, to understand it,” he said in the interview.

‘Ideas’ critical

He said he was surprised that the chatbot could be ironic and irreverent and by the “instantaneous” speed of its production.

But he said chatbots would never be able to report a news story, devise an exclusive, build the premises for an interview, find direct sources, or observe the world with a “non-replicable gaze”.

“In a world where one day everyone will be able to use the tools of artificial intelligence, what will make the difference will be ideas,” he said.

During their simulated discussion, Il Foglio’s AI said it was “moved” and that the “future will belong to journalists”.

“And I’ll be there, at the bottom of the page, maybe with a digital coffee in hand, fixing the drafts while you discuss,” it said.