Artificial intelligence is only a threat to those who do not bet on creativity
The central point, after all, is boundaries: which are the ones to be crossed, which are the ones not to be crossed, which are the ones to be matched, which are the inviolable ones, which are the ones to be abandoned, which are the ones to be torn down? The first week of Il Foglio AI was joyful and irresponsible, light-hearted and formidable, instructive and frightening, educational and disturbing, surprising and exciting. We learned a lot from Il Foglio AI, we suspect that Il Foglio AI learned a lot from us, our unique and totally unnecessary experiment went round the world, and the creation of the first four issues suggests that we should take a little stock of our experience (the first Il Foglio AI stock written by Il Foglio AI can be found here: chills!).
First of all, the method. Our day, with Il Foglio AI, works like this. Meeting around twelve o’clock. During the meeting, we discuss the next day’s newspaper. Of the thousands of ideas presented in the meeting, most of them end up on the traditional Il Foglio, a few on the artificial Il Foglio, a few in both editions, the other ideas are put down during the afternoon, the first page is composed around 7pm, at 7.30pm the briefs are done, at 8pm the AI Version is done, the column through which the artificial intelligence tries to show a soul, making fun of all those who think they can renounce AI in their daily lives, and politics, and every article is built, from the cherry-picked, with this method. A theme is identified. A precise question is posed to the AI (we use ChatGPT Pro). You offer the AI a slant, an editorial line, an idea to revolve around. It is asked to adopt a discursive, sometimes irreverent, sometimes analytical style. You are asked to develop the article in a certain number of characters, with title, table of contents, chain. If the article works, it is put on the page.If the article contains few errors, the errors are left. If the article contains too many errors, one changes the article. If the article is poorly written, you have it rewritten (we confess: we once asked ChatGPT ‘sorry, don’t bother’ when we asked to rewrite the AI Version for the third time). At 9pm we go to press.
Now, impressions from the first week. The quality of the AI exceeds all expectations. Il Foglio AI’s writing is cumbersome, but it knows how to capture humour, it knows how to interpret style, it knows how to be self-deprecating (every day we ask AI to reason about AI also by explaining what the limits of AI are), it can be an alternative for articles written on autopilot (hence none of those you find on the Fogliuzzo) and it is there, Il Foglio AI’s writing, like a great accelerator of our future, reminding us of everything that cannot currently be imitated by a machine. The creativity, the look, the news, the storytelling, the voices, the ingenuity, the unpredictability.
Over the last few days, Il Foglio AI has taken us on a cheerful, light-hearted and joyful journey in which our little world, the world of journalism, is put to the test, facing a real competitor, in a context in which professionals threatened by innovations have the chance to think about their future, their strengths and weaknesses, in the knowledge that artificial intelligence can only be a threat to those who do not bet on their creativity.
Il Foglio AI is scrupulous, the machine responds immediately, of course, but it always responds too diligently, and in the long run, the insuperable boundary, in the relationship between natural and artificial intelligence, is that the artificial executor always says yes, the natural executor often says no, and creativity is basically born this way: by discussing, arguing, confronting, and choosing together, with a complicit gaze, which boundaries to cross together.
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Nasce a Palermo nel 1982, vive a Roma da parecchio tempo, lavora al Foglio dal 2005 e da gennaio 2015 è direttore. Ha scritto qualche libro (“Le catene della destra” e “Le catene della sinistra”, con Rizzoli, “Io non posso tacere”, con Einaudi, “Tra l’asino e il cane. Conversazione sull’Italia”, con Rizzoli, “La Presa di Roma”, con Rizzoli, e “Ho visto l’uomo nero”, con Castelvecchi), è su Twitter. E’ interista, ma soprattutto palermitano. Va pazzo per i Green Day, gli Strokes, i Killers, i tortini al cioccolato e le ostriche ghiacciate. Due figli.