Query: Can AI use a set of facts to write a news report?
Background: The first task of any reporter is to collect facts. The second task is to decide the main news point. The third is to write the news lead. Finally, the reporter structures the story in the inverted pyramid format, where the most important point comes first. The less important ones follow in decreasing order of importance. The skill of any reporter lies in how well he crafts a news report.
Experiment: A fact sheet was created about an imaginary accident. The information was organised as bits and pieces of information separated by semi colons. Then three prompts were created and the fact sheet was fed to ChatGPT. The AI model was also provided keywords.
Fact Sheet
Bus dashes into Innova; 5 Innova passengers dead; accident on Noida expressway; accident happened in the wee hours of Sunday morning; bus driver was tired and had dozed off; 5 bus passengers sitting in the bus injured; bus was going from Delhi to Mathura; the bus belonged to UP State Roadways Transport Corporation; Innova passengers who die were part of a family going to Lucknow to attend a marriage.
Keywords: Five Innova passengers dead, road accident, Noida expressway, bus crashed into Innova
Prompt 1: Create a news report for a newspaper with a suitable title.
ChatGPT’s response
Title: “Tragic Collision on Noida Expressway Claims Lives: 5 Innova Passengers Killed in Bus Accident”*
A tragic road accident on the Noida expressway claimed the lives of five passengers in an Innova early Sunday morning.
The fatal collision occurred when a bus belonging to the UP State Roadways Transport Corporation crashed into the Innova, resulting in the deaths of the Innova passengers.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the bus driver, fatigued from the journey from Delhi to Mathura, had dozed off behind the wheel.
The victims, part of a family en route to Lucknow to attend a marriage, were among the casualties, while five others seated in the bus sustained injuries.
Prompt 2: Write a news report for a web portal with a catchy title.
ChatGPT’s response
Title: “Tragedy Strikes on Noida Expressway: 5 Innova Passengers Killed in Horrific Bus Collision”
News Report: In a devastating incident on the Noida expressway, five passengers of an Innova lost their lives when a bus collided with their vehicle in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The fatal accident, which also left five bus passengers injured, occurred as the weary bus driver dozed off while enroute from Delhi to Mathura.
Among the deceased were members of a family traveling to Lucknow for a wedding, underscoring the heart-wrenching toll of this road tragedy.
Stay tuned for updates as the investigation unfolds.
Prompt 3: Write a news report in the second person for being published on a blog with a sensational title.
ChatGPT’s response
Title: “You Won’t Believe What Happened on the Noida Expressway: Fatal Collision Kills 5 Innova Passengers!”
News Report: Imagine waking up to a nightmare on the Noida expressway. As you drive along the darkened highway in the wee hours of Sunday morning, a deafening crash shatters the silence.
A bus, barrelling down the road from Delhi to Mathura, collides with an Innova, sending shockwaves through the early morning air. Tragically, five Innova passengers lose their lives in the chaos, victims of a collision that could have been prevented.
As investigations reveal, the bus driver’s exhaustion led to a fatal error, highlighting the perilous risks of travel on our highways.
Prompt 4: Distil meaning from the jumbled up sentences to write a news report without changing the facts.
Jumbled facts: Bus was going from Delhi to Mathura; the bus belonged to UP State Roadways Transport Corporation; accident on Noida expressway; Bus dashes into Innova; 5 Innova passengers dead; accident happened in the wee hours of Sunday morning; Innova passengers who die were part of a family going to Lucknow to attend a marriage bus driver was tired and had dozed off; 5 bus passengers sitting in the bus injured.
Keywords: Five Innova passengers dead, road accident, Noida expressway, bus crashed into Innova.
ChatGPT’s response
ChatGPT was not tricked. It was able to locate the facts that mattered, and created this report:
Title: “Tragic Collision on Noida Expressway: 5 Lives Lost as Bus Crashes into Innova”
News Report: In a devastating incident on the Noida expressway, tragedy struck early Sunday morning as a bus belonging to the UP State Roadways Transport Corporation collided with an Innova, claiming the lives of five passengers.
The fatal accident occurred as the bus, enroute from Delhi to Mathura, collided with the Innova carrying passengers, who were on their way to Lucknow to attend a marriage.
Additionally, five passengers inside the bus sustained injuries as investigations revealed that the bus driver, fatigued from the journey, had dozed off behind the wheel, highlighting the urgent need for enhanced road safety measures.
My Findings
The following are my findings:
- AI can convert a set of related facts into a news report.
- It can create news reports based on the medium. Since developing reports on the web are often updated, AI closed the report with the sentence: “Stay tuned for updates as the investigation unfolds.” The newspaper report was final because once published the report cannot be changed.
- The language changed from neutral to casual when it was asked to create a blog in the second person. The structuring was dramatically different. It is how a blogger would have written about the event.
- AI can spot facts irrespective of the way they are arranged. This is how the human mind also works.
- All four reports were of publishable quality. They only needed retouching here and there.
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