Styli Charalambous, Daily Maverick

At the end of 2023, Sports Illustrated found itself in hot water for publishing GenAI articles written by fake authors with AI-generated profile pictures. The publication blamed a third party, but the damage had been done. Now, news publications everywhere are using GenAI in their newsrooms. The New York Times, for one, says it views the technology “not as some magical solution”, but as a powerful tool that will be used in the service of reporting the news.

Styli Charalambous, co-founder and CEO of Daily Maverick, says when the large language model boom kicked off, “we couldn’t just hold our breath and wait for the waters to subside. We knew that we needed to get wet and figure out how to get up on that board and surf. We saw how poorly the industry responded to the first digital disruption that came with the internet age, and we didn’t want to make the same mistake again. We’ve tried to lean into the opportunity but, at the same time, be mindful of the risks.”