Mr Kiril Valchev, the Director General (DG), of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), has said that it was unimaginable for Artificial Intelligent (AI), to replace God’s creation – the human being.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the DG said this at the conference of the Association of Balkan News Agencies – Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE), in Istanbul.
The conference with the theme: “Navigating the AI and Media”, took place ahead of the ABNA-SE 32nd General Assembly.
According to him, the AI will never replace the natural communication between people.
“Imagine having computers at a future ABNA-SE General Assembly trying to calculate what the heads of news agencies would say, or how they would vote.
“While that may be possible in some other parts of the world, it is inconceivable in the Balkans where life has always been guided by living human emotions.
He said that professions such as journalism, where practitioners work with large databases, would be faster, if they utilise AI, but added that AI could not replace a live reporter on the scene.
“AI works with previously accumulated knowledge but cannot cover live news. New technologies can only complement journalists, not replace them,” he added.
Valchev listed some uses of AI in the news media.
“AI can pick the really important news and help users navigate through the ocean of news.
“AI can facilitate the exchange of news articles between agencies that use different languages and ABNA-SE will consider developing software to ease the exchange of news among members.
“AI can help media outlets find common points between different news articles such as where the news flows of the 12 ABNA-SE members cross.
“It can facilitate the combination of various formats for news reporting like text, photos, video, audio, and info-graphics.
“It can also ease the management of news agencies’ presence in the social networks and other platforms, and reach more people, especially more young people, while equally mproving the news agencies’ databases.
“It can equally help the news agencies to better train their staff,” he added.
He posited that journalists must be trained on how to use AI, adding that developing natural human intelligence must precede such AI training.
The BTA chief declared that AI could never replace human cooperation or turn ABNA-SE into a computer controlled by algorithms.
He lauded ABNA-SE for the progress of having been registered as a legal entity in Sofia, declaring that such was an honour for BTA.
Valchev said that Italy’s news agency had joined ABNA-SE in 2023, adding that effort was underway to have news agencies of Serbia and Moldova on board.
NAN reports that Turkiye’s Minister of Industry and Technology, Mehmet Fatih Kacir, and Serdar Karagoz, head of ABNA-SE and Anadolu Agency Director General, were at the conference.(NAN)
