The Pre-History of News-Industry Discourse Around Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

This study examines how automation and then artificial intelligence (AI) was discussed by news workers in journalism trade publications in the 1980s and 1990s and through the 2000s and 2010s. This era saw the full computerization of the newsroom, as well as the introduction of the civilian, commercial internet and its adoption by the news and media industries. Limited use of automated and early AI tools in these fields dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, with the use of software such as spell- and grammar-checkers, as well as the first generation of word-processing tools. This included very early efforts at automated writing, such as for financial and sports news. With this complex origin story, the discourse around AI has a prehistory that deserves a deeper exploration and appreciation.