BuzzFeed Is Quietly Publishing Whole AI-Generated Articles, Not Just Quizzes

Earlier this year, when BuzzFeed announced plans to start publishing AI-assisted content, its CEO Jonah Peretti promised the tech would be held to a high standard. “I think that there are two paths for AI in digital media,” Peretti told CNN. “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.” “Even if there are a lot of bad actors who try to use AI to make content farms, it won’t win in the long run,” he added. “I think the content farm model of AI will feel very depressing and dystopian.” Indeed, the first AI content BuzzFeed published — a series of quizzes that turned user input into customized responses — were an interesting experiment, avoiding many of the missteps that other publishers have made with the tech. It doesn’t seem like that commitment to quality has held up, though. This month, we noticed that with none of the fanfare of Peretti’s multiple interviews about the quizzes, BuzzFeed quietly started publishing fully AI-generated articles that are produced by non-editorial staff — and they sound a lot like the content mill model that Peretti had promised to avoid. The 40 or so articles, all of which appear to be SEO-driven travel guides, are comically bland and similar to one another. Check out these almost-copied lines:…BuzzFeed Is Quietly Publishing Whole AI-Generated Articles, Not Just Quizzes

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