SHANGHAI, Mar 27 (News On Japan) - At Asia's largest consumer electronics expo held this month in Shanghai, the letters 'AI' were everywhere — from robots to TVs to refrigerators. This year's event felt entirely dominated by artificial intelligence, and that influence is now reaching into the media world.
On March 18th, the Italian newspaper Il Foglio launched Il F-AI, an experimental paper written entirely by artificial intelligence. Human involvement was limited to inputting the prompts. The AI-written paper is scheduled to be published daily from Tuesday to Friday for one month.
However, the project has drawn criticism. Some say, "This is an embarrassment," and argue that "AI should support creative work, not replace it entirely." Others question the quality of AI-generated content and its ability to provide critical analysis or conduct field reporting. Ethical and legal considerations surrounding AI journalism are also under discussion.
Despite the concerns, the integration of AI into media is accelerating — including in Japan. In August last year, the Saga Shimbun published a one-day special issue written by AI to commemorate its 140th anniversary. The article imagined what Saga Prefecture might look like in 2045.
The increasing presence of AI in daily life has sparked new questions: how should media organizations engage with this technology? To explore the issue, the program invited Shota Tajima, developer of "StoryHub" — the AI editorial assistant used for the Saga Shimbun project.
Tajima explained that the goal was to test the current capabilities of AI. "Every single word was generated by AI. What surprised us was how fluently it could write in Japanese. On the other hand, generating an entire article from scratch took quite a lot of time. This showed us that even if AI can achieve 80% of the work, the final touches must still be done by humans."
He noted that while AI is useful for drafting, the initial articles felt monotonous and tiring to read. However, one piece attributed to the company's CEO was so well-written it almost sounded like the real person had spoken. "We trained the AI on the CEO’s past statements, so it could recreate what he might say now," Tajima explained.
This led to a broader conversation among the panelists about the changing nature of journalism. One guest pointed out: "If AI can write the article, how much easier does that make a journalist’s job?" Tajima responded, "Rather than fully replacing journalists, it’s about understanding where AI excels and where it doesn’t. That’s how we’re gradually incorporating it into daily operations."
Some staff members found prompting the AI challenging at first, but overall, the feedback was positive. Another panelist shared his own experiences experimenting with AI, remarking that current AI still falls short of true human expression, which paradoxically makes it feel more human-like in its imperfections.
The discussion then shifted to the evolving role of journalists in an AI-driven future. Participants suggested that rather than being replaced, journalists would increasingly focus on tasks like story planning, editorial judgment, and final review — areas where human intuition and creativity remain essential.
"Even if AI writes the middle part, humans should control both the beginning and end — deciding what to create and how to polish it for publication," one said. The ability to secure interviews with high-profile figures, for instance, still relies heavily on human connections.
As AI tools become more sophisticated, some predicted a shift toward ultra-efficient, field-focused journalism. Reporters might use smart glasses to record interviews, receive real-time suggestions from AI, and generate a first draft the moment the conversation ends.
Still, others warned that automation could reduce the number of jobs, especially for those involved in intermediate tasks. However, individuals skilled at gathering original information or managing editorial output would remain indispensable.
The conversation ended on a philosophical note: while AI may handle more technical aspects of content creation, it is still human creativity — the ability to see value where others don’t — that ultimately shapes meaningful journalism.
Source: ABEMA Prime
