AI can spot the 5Ws and H much like humans

Query: Can AI locate the 5Ws and H in a news report and convert it into a news lead?

Background: A news lead is built around the 5Ws and H, which stand for Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. The reporter does not use all the Ws but the relevant ones that summarize the key points. This is how leads have been written for over a century, and this how they continue to be written even today.

Experiment: The fact sheet that I chose was garbled. There was a mishmash of facts. Most beginners would have struggled to make sense of the facts that were thrown at them.

They may have found the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the story but they would have been unable to match the lightning pace of Generative AI. They would also have struggled in converting the 5Ws and H into a news lead. But not ChatGPT.

This is how the experiment went:

Prompt: Go through the fact sheet given below and identify the five Ws and H. Join the five Ws and H to create the news lead.

Fact Sheet

GREATER NOIDA: Pari Chowk crossing in Greater Noida at 7 pm on Monday. Dusk has settled in; there is thin rain; very low visibility; No street lights. Large number of cars, buses, tempos, motorcycles etc; each trying to move forward on the busy roundabout. Suddenly, a cow saunters down the road. A BMW going towards Honda City factory brakes hard; almost hits the cow; the cow is not concerned, continues walking. But a mini truck behind BMW slams into it; and drags it almost 10 feet. A 28-year-old motorcyclist, Ramesh Kumar, coming from Noida on the Expressway smashes into the BMW, and flies off; the motorcycle spins around and hits a 50-year-old woman, Prabha Devi, selling peanuts on the sidewalk. The woman is badly hurt. The motorcycle driver flies over the BMW and falls on the other side of the road. A speeding Innova drives into the motorcyclist. He dies on the spot. All traffic comes to a halt.

ChatGPT’s response

Five Ws and H:

• Who: 28-year-old motorcyclist named Ramesh Kumar, 50-year-old woman named Prabha Devi

• What: Accident involving a cow, a BMW, a mini truck, a motorcyclist, and an Innova

• Where: Pari Chowk crossing in Greater Noida

• When: Monday at 7 pm

• Why: Lack of street lights, low visibility, presence of a cow on the road

• How: Mini truck slams into the BMW, causing a chain reaction of accidents.

News Lead:

At 7 pm on Monday, chaos ensued at Pari Chowk crossing in Greater Noida as an accident involving a cow, a BMW, a mini truck, a motorcyclist, and an Innova unfolded amidst thin rain and very low visibility. A 28-year-old motorcyclist, Ramesh Kumar, coming from Noida on the Expressway, lost his life in the collision, while a 50-year-old woman named Prabha Devi, selling peanuts on the sidewalk, was badly injured. The incident, caused by the presence of a cow on the road and exacerbated by the lack of street lights, brought all traffic to a halt.

My findings:

1. Generative AI can break down a given set of facts into five Ws and H.
2. It can then join them to create a news lead.
3. The only W where it missed out was ‘What’. It correctly identified the two victims of the accident. But failed to mention that the motorcyclist was dead.
4. It, however, made up for the lapse by weaving this fact into the news lead.
5. There can be some debate regarding the first sentence. The classic lead would have started by stating that “A 28-year-old motorcyclist died and a peanut seller was injured in a bizarre accident at Pari Chowk in Greater Noida on Monday evening.” This news lead covers all the main points including the fact that a youth had died.

However, ChatGPT began by highlighting the bizarre nature of the accident and brought out the death in the second sentence. One can’t fault ChatGPT for this. There is little doubt that the accident was bizarre. You rarely come across such an unusual set of circumstances leading to an accident.

A good reporter could have joined the two and come up with a lead like this: “A cow triggered a tragic sequence of events on the busy Pari Chowk roundabout in Greater Noida on Monday evening leading to the death of a 28-year-old motorcyclist.”

Read also:

Editors can depend upon AI to write news headlines
My Experiments with AI: Writing a news report