Journalist Javier Cabral wanted to test Google’s much-hyped, experimental artificial intelligence-powered search results. So he typed out a question about a topic he knew intimately: the Long Beach bakery Gusto Bread’s coffee . In less than a second, Google’s AI summarized information about the bakery in a few sentences and bullet points.
But according to Cabral, the summary wasn’t original — it appeared to be lifted from an article he wrote last year for the local food, community and culture publication L.A. Taco, where he serves as the editor in chief.
For a previous story, he’d spent at least five days working on a feature about the bakery, arriving at 4 a.m. to report on the bread making process.
As Cabral saw it, the search giant’s AI was ripping him off. “The average consumer that just wants to go check it out, they’re probably not going to read [the article] anymore” Cabral said in an interview. “When you break it down like that, it’s a little enraging for sure.
” The rise of AI is just the latest existential threat to news organizations such as Cabral’s, which are fighting to survive amid a rapidly changing media and information environment. News outlets have struggled to attract subscribers and advertising dollars in the internet age. And social media platforms such as Facebook, which publishers depended on to get their content to a massive audience, have largely pivoted away from news.
Now, with the growth of AI thanks to companies includi.