BuzzFeed’s stock price soars as company announces AI content push

AI

BuzzFeed Inc.’s shares just rose by as much as 150% as the digital media company announced today that it will start producing a lot more content with OpenAI LLC’s tool, ChatGPT.

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm since it was released in 2022. Countless artists, philosophers and technologists have weighed in on what kind of world we might be looking at as such a powerful tool more than likely transforms the topography of the workplace and no doubt relieves a significant number of workers of their jobs.

The consternation is every bit rational, even if for years companies have been talking about how AI will enhance the workplace rather than denude it of flesh-and-blood employees. According to BuzzFeed’s Chief Executive Jonah Peretti, as outlined in a memo he sent to staff this week, AI will certainly make a difference.

In the memo, which was first made public by The Wall Street Journal and later led to BuzzFeed’s stock seeing record-breaking increases, Peretti seems to suggest that as ChatGPT plays a part in writing the company’s content, staff can be assured the newsroom floor won’t suddenly go very quiet.

Peretti explained that OpenAI’s starring role at the company will at first be mostly “enhancing the quiz experience, informing our brainstorming, and personalizing our content for our audience.” He added that down the line, he expects AI to play a much bigger role in writing content, although he said humans will always be the company’s main source of content.

Nonetheless, like many companies of late, BuzzFeed has had a tough time, having to lay off a good chunk of its newsroom employees lately after seeing its share price sink lower and lower through 2022. It would be hard to imagine that any struggling company would snub AI-generated content in place of humans if it saved money.

Indeed, in the memo, Peretti tells staff that these are “challenging times” in which BuzzFeed has to “fight for every penny of revenue.” He added, “We must look ahead and shift our business towards longer-term trends in order to seize the opportunities that will come in the eventual recovery.”

Although various media have used AI content over the years to create simple reports, major changes could be afoot. AI doesn’t have a “voice” as yet, and it can’t write complex stories, but the day is likely coming when it can manage a lot of a news company’s standard reportage. Peretti admitted in the memo that in the next 15 years, he expects AI will “create, personalize, and animate the content itself.”

As he concluded his missive, he again reminded staff that BuzzFeed must “fight for revenue and manage costs,” although he may have placated some of the more concerned writers when he let them know: “To be clear, we see the breakthroughs in AI opening up a new era of creativity that will allow humans to harness creativity in new ways with endless opportunities and applications for good.”

Photo: Anthony Quintano/Flickr