"Why bother using it at all" Ex Reach PLC sports journalist has his say on AI use

During a long and experienced career Steven Chicken spoke to Leo Knight, a number of questions were raised which explored AIs uses, the dangers of using it, his experiences with AI and what he expects in the future.

By Leo Knight

Steven Chicken is a highly experienced sports journalist who has been writing articles for a number of different publications since 2009. The importance of interviewing such an experienced sports journalist who specialises in not just football but also rugby, cricket and cycling cannot be understated; Steven has seen the initial introduction of AI in the industry and has also watched its recent surge.

Steven started out his trade writing for the Football League Paper in 2009 and is now flourishing at YorkshireLive where he talks all things Huddersfield Town FC which he won an award for the SJA regionalist journalist of the year.

One thing about AI is that it can ease the 'workload' of journalists and can help you with sharing out your effort and brain power elsewhere but is this necessarily true, Steven said "The issue is that there is such an insatiable 24-hour demand for sport content where in reality, at most clubs there's only really a handful of genuinely notable and newsworthy moments per week." This means that at many clubs or positions across the UK, apart from the big six clubs the news is not really there and craved by the audience which lessens the use for Ai to decrease and help with workload.

While Steven was for the most part critical of Ai and the use of it in the newsroom he appreciated it's use as a tool, Steven went onto say "I really love using AI to automatically transcribe long interviews, its not flawless but a massive timesaver. "Typically this is what most journalists will use AI for but you obviously need to be careful for hallucinations and or mistakes like paraphrasing. This can be especially troublesome, for example a newspaper in the US ran with a feature listicle titled 'the best books to read this summer' and AI submitted at least 15 books that were completely made up."

Just like the BBC has told many others, Steven was told "you are not to AI to write any of your content" on this Steven said "I understood it honestly, its no where near accurate enough yet and has massive potential to make them look stupid, also you'd have to be a complete idiot to accept anything that Ai says as the gospel truth without checking it." Perhaps in the future UK based news reporters will provide adequate training on how to use Ai safely and well instead of banning it completely.

Job displacement is a key worry that can affect journalists, Steven said "I cant see AI replacing any of the journalists I work with, there understanding of their craft and certain nuances they use are just irreplaceable, and at this moment in time Ai is not near developed enough. It is just a tool for me and many others."

Where you can find Stevens work: Steven Chicken - YorkshireLive