AP CEO Stresses Importance of Human Oversight for AI-Supported Reporting, at Japan National Press Club

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Associated Press CEO Daisy Veerasingham delivers a speech at a press conference at the Tokyo National Press Club in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Daisy Veerasingham, CEO of The Associated Press, said that the involvement of human journalists is crucial for ensuring reliability in reporting that utilizes artificial intelligence, at a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.

She also more broadly discussed the relationship between news organizations and technology at the conference held at the Japan National Press Club.

While the use of AI improves work efficiency, she said, “Importantly, [at AP] a human journalist is always involved, reviewing and editing before publication [to ensure the reliability of reporting.]”

AP in 2023 became the first news organization to secure a licensing agreement with ChatGPT developer OpenAI. While providing its archives — going back to 1985 — as training material for AI, AP is promoting the use of the technology in editorial work for tasks such as summarizing, translation and headline generation.

Veerasingham explained the reason for the partnership, stating that as ChatGPT began to surge in popularity, AP saw it as an opportunity to represent the interests of news organizations and “define our principles whilst entering a new space.”

She expressed the view that revenue diversification is necessary for news organizations to sustain journalistic activities, and stated that “content creators [whose work AI learns from] must be fairly compensated.”