The BBC announced on June 27th that it will begin public trials of two generative AI tools designed to improve its news production workflow. These pilots, announced by Rhodri Talfan Davies, the BBC’s executive sponsor for generative AI, will focus on creating “at a glance” summaries and a style-assist formatting tool.
The BBC has conducted internal tests for the past 18 months to assess how generative AI can benefit production. This new public phase aims to evaluate if AI-generated bullet-point summaries help readers understand longer articles and if an AI-powered style assistant can expedite reformatting partner content to BBC house style.
For the “at a glance” pilot, journalists will use a pre-approved prompt to generate concise summaries of news stories. Every output will be reviewed and edited before publication, guaranteeing editorial control and transparency regarding AI use. Short bullet-point summaries have proven popular with younger audiences as a quick method for comprehending complex stories.
The Style Assist pilot will utilize a BBC-trained large language model to reformat reports from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). The LDRS, funded by the BBC and provided by local news organizations, delivers daily local news. By automating house-style editing, the BBC hopes to increase the number of LDRS stories published without increasing production time.
In the Style Assist workflow, a report is submitted, reformatted by the AI model, and then reviewed by a senior journalist for accuracy and clarity. Human approval is required before publication, and any AI assistance will be disclosed to the audience. Initially, news teams in BBC Wales and the east of England will test Style Assist.
The BBC will carefully assess each tool’s performance, address shortcomings, and decide whether to expand the pilots. "Over the last 18 months, the corporation has run internal tests to assess how generative AI can aid production processes," said Davies.