Jonah Peretti, the co-founder and chief executive of BuzzFeed, has been experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence in media.
Over the past month or so, Peretti explored how the digital media platform could incorporate AI into its operations.
Peretti said in a phone interview with CNN that he and some of his colleagues were exploring how the technology could enhance the site’s quizzes, interactive articles, and more.
He described this exploration as “playful” and said that it “led to multiple Google docs full of the implications of the technology and how [BuzzFeed] could build this into our platform and how we could extend it to other formats.”
Peretti formally announced on Thursday that BuzzFeed would use ChatGPT creator OpenAI to produce content. AI will become a part of BuzzFeed’s “core business,” according to the announcement.
Peretti sees two potential paths forward for the use of AI in the media business.
“One path is the obvious path that a lot of people will do — but it’s a depressing path — using the technology for cost savings and spamming out a bunch of SEO articles that are lower quality than what a journalist could do but a tenth of the cost. That’s one vision, but to me, that’s a depressing vision and a shortsighted vision because in the long run it’s not going to work,” he said.
For Peretti, the other path is “the one that gets me really excited, is the new model for digital media that is more personalized, more creative, more dynamic — where really talented people who work at our company are able to use AI together and entertain and personalize more than you could ever do without AI.”
Indeed, following BuzzFeed’s announcement, Peretti assures his audience that the company will not replace humans with AI. He predicts that other companies will choose this path, but BuzzFeed will not.
