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BuzzFeed will use ChatGPT bots instead of writers

Based on a memo sent out to staff by Cheif executive officer, Jonah Peretti & answers provided to The Verge, BuzzFeed will be using Artificial intelligence technology provided by ChatGPT maker OpenAI to strengthen and “personalize” the data.

Jonah Peretti claims in the document that AI will be among two significant developments establishing the future of digital media and the other being creators.

BuzzFeed
Image Source: nytimes.com

So, as per Peretti, BuzzFeed’s AI-influenced content will debut on the site in 2023 which will be improving the trivia experience, guide our pondering, and customize our information for the public. The Wall Street Journal broke the story about the memo.

“Our industry will expand beyond AI-powered curation (feeds), to AI-powered creation (content),” says Peretti. “AI opens up a new era of creativity, where creative humans like us play a key role in providing the ideas, cultural currency, inspired prompts, IP, and formats that come to life using the newest technologies.”

Source: theverge.com

AI could be utilized to create customized rom-com pitches for readers, according to one example cited by the Wall Street Journal but not mentioned in the memo. They would indeed be asked a variety of questions, along with private details such as naming an alluring flaw or picking a favorite rom-com trope, and the results would be universally accessible.

In the memo, Peretti stated that he’ll share a sneak peek of the material he’ll be introducing in February at an all-hands gathering later.

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When questioned if BuzzFeed was thinking about the use of AI in its news department, the firm’s, Matt Mittenthal, VP of communications, denied it and said they will be using OpenAI for sure.

The escalating ability of AI-based tools such as ChatGPT to compose prose has created the technology, appealing to media companies suffering from declining advertising rates. BuzzFeed, in specific, has experienced a bumpy market ride until coming out publicly in December 2021.

By June 2022, the firm’s stock price already had dropped 40 percent and has continued to drop since. Following the announcement, that BuzzFeed will use AI to create content, the company’s stock price had increased well over % at the moment of writing.

Jonah Peretti

How Jonah Peretti built a billion-dollar company Buzzfeed?

Internet entrepreneur Jonah Peretti is co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, the company, which was formerly renowned for online quizzes, “listicles,” and pop culture pieces has developed into a global internet and technology organization that covers a range of subjects, such as politics, Crafts, animals, and business. He was the co-founder of The Huffington Post, and creator of the “Reblog” project, which pioneered reblogging.

Jonah Peretti
Image Source: theverge.com

Early Life

Jonah Peretti’s life appeared to be fairly typical until he founded the billion-dollar media giant BuzzFeed. He earned an environmental studies degree from UC Santa Cruz and found work as a teacher in New Orleans.

His passion for viral media was then kindled following an email argument with sportswear giant Nike. Before going to MIT to acquire his master’s, he spent over three years instructing computer science. During his time at MIT, his email conversation with Nike regarding a request to print “sweatshop” on specially ordered shoes became viral.

Read More: The Success Story of the Founder of The Huffington Post

Nike continued to cancel the order after several emails back and forth, so Peretti copied the emails together and forwarded them to a select group of pals. His idea became an initial email forward and eventually reached millions of people at a time when the idea of “going viral” hadn’t yet been coined.

Success Story

In 2005, Jonah Peretti co-founded the Huffington Post with Arianna Huffington after meeting her through the widely circulated Nike email. Peretti founded BuzzFeed as a side gig soon after HuffPost was acquired by AOL for $315 million in 2011. In November 2006, Peretti launched the “Internet popularity contest” website BuzzFeed.

After quitting HuffPost, Peretti started a full-time job at BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed began as an Instant Messenger bot. The bot distributed links to groups of buddies after identifying trendy content online. Although the website was initially recognized for its blend of listicles and internet memes, it was the first to report that John McCain will support Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican Primary.

After then, the website kept expanding and the following year raised over $35 million in capital from investors. The website received an additional $50 million in funding from the investment firm Andreessen Horowitz in August 2014, almost doubling its prior fundraising rounds. According to Peretti, BuzzFeed’s audience has roughly doubled every year since its start.

Over 400 employees now work for the website thanks to Peretti, who Business Insider once dubbed “the web’s king of viral content.” Over a short period of time. Ben Smith, a well-known political journalist, was even hired by Peretti in 2012 to help develop Buzzfeed’s more serious journalism.

By 2021, BuzzFeed News had invested years into developing its investigative reporting, and it had been awarded the National Magazine Award, the George Polk Awar, and been nominated for the Michael Kelly Award. BuzzFeed news crew was a nominee for a Pulitzer Prize in the foreign reporting category in 2018. In 2021, BuzzFeed received the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for a series of investigations into the Xinjiang detention camps.