However, the Post acknowledges that chatbots can sometimes generate inaccurate information, and has therefore asked users to confirm the results with the published articles. This comes amidst a debate about whether AI chatbots would draw traffic away from independent websites. The Post hopes its chatbot can serve as an opportunity to "delight and inform readers," despite recently losing over 250,000 subscribers following owner Jeff Bezos's decision not to endorse a president in the 2024 election.
Key takeaways:
- The Washington Post has launched a new AI chatbot, 'Ask The Post AI', that provides AI-generated answers to questions based on the newspaper’s back catalog of stories published since 2016.
- The chatbot is seen as a way to counter the rise of other chatbots like ChatGPT, which could threaten news businesses if people use them to learn about news events instead of visiting news websites directly.
- The Washington Post acknowledges that chatbots can sometimes generate false information, but it believes its chatbot will perform better as it is limited to using the newspaper's published work as its data source.
- The launch of the chatbot comes after the newspaper lost over 250,000 subscribers following owner Jeff Bezos's decision not to endorse a president in the 2024 election.