Gathering the news for the AI-powered future
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
One startup that stood out during Y Combinator's recent Demo Day presentations was Infobot, an "AI generated news network."
Why it matters: Much ink has been spilled (including by this publication!) about the impact of artificial intelligence on the production of news content.
- Or put another way: which jobs in the news business AI will eventually take.
First impressions: Infobot has an intuitive concept: use AI to synthesize publicly available information on topics like local government updates.
- While human journalists can do more complex reporting and writing that involves unearthing non-public information and conducting interviews, AI systems can surely keep folks updated on the various bills passed and announcements from City Hall, for example.
- The website lets users pick "channels" with specific topics like "San Francisco Board of Supervisors" or "European tech funding news," and even create their own.
What they're saying: "We're not replacing newspapers — our aim here is to expand the market for news by using AI to cover hyper niche topics," co-founder and CEO Justin Harvey tells Axios via email.
- He adds that Infobot's service is very much in its early stages and the company continues to experiment, observe how users interact with it, and wants to thoughtfully evolve the product.
- It plans to eventually generate revenue via subscriptions.
- "Initially, most users came to us specifically for help tracking their investments (this was our original proof of concept)," he explains. "Today we serve a broader range of customers including startup founders, community leaders, business executives, etc."
The bottom line: AI-generated news content is coming.
