‘I don’t think AI is ever going to build a relationship with readers like reporters can’ – Connie Loizos, TechCrunch

Original reporting is here to stay, according to TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos.

Speaking at Collision in Toronto, Connie (pictured above) discussed how TechCrunch is navigating the integration of AI into journalism, saying the company is “pretty cautious about AI”.

Connie’s comments came off the back of a number of controversial developments in the AI space: Gannett – one of the largest newspaper publishers in the United States – debuted AI summaries at the top of its articles last month, and Google recently made headlines due to the rollout of an AI summary function on its search engine.

“I do think that original reporting is our best defense against it. And I also think being human is a strong defense. I don’t think that AI is ever going to build a relationship with readers like our reporters can,” said Connie.

Despite believing in the viability of reporter-led journalism, Connie is “very worried” about Google’s AI summaries: “I think every publisher now cannot rely on anyone other than themselves, and that’s the reality. You have to be a destination, and also, you have to adopt a little bit more of a service provider mindset,” Connie said.

The editor said that, in the future, news outlets will have to become “digital guide[s] in the wilderness … and help steer people to things that we haven’t maybe written ourselves, but we think is important to service for them.”

Aside from concerns around AI, Connie said that TechCrunch is “very interested” in utilizing AI to help the company scale: “We do use AI-driven software to help us copy edit stories. I think that the writers all use it.”

“We sort of bounce ideas off of it, like, ‘how can I make this headline maybe snappier?’ Just in the same way that probably everybody in their day-to-day lives uses ChatGPT as a little bit of a sounding board.”

Connie said the company was considering using AI to publish newsletters in different languages, but that ultimately they “aren’t there yet.”

Connie’s comments were made as part of a wider discussion on the future of journalism  on the Fourth Estate stage at Collision, which is returning to Toronto for its sixth year. Global founders, CEOs, investors and members of the media have come to the city to make deals and experience North America’s thriving tech ecosystem.

More than 1,600 startups are taking part in Collision 2024 – the highest number of startups ever at a Collision event. 45 percent of these are women-founded, and startups have travelled to Toronto from countries including Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Uruguay, Japan, Italy, Ghana, Pakistan and beyond.

In total, more than 37,800 attendees have gathered at the event, as well as 570 speakers and 1,003 members of the media, to explore business opportunities with an international audience.

739 investors are attending Collision, including Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures; and Nigel Morris, co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, as well as nine companies on the Forbes Midas List, and 12 investors from those firms.

Top speakers at Collision include:

• Geoffrey Hinton, Godfather of AI
  Maria Sharapova, entrepreneur and tennis legend
• Aidan Gomez, founder and CEO of Cohere (an AI for enterprise and large language model company, which raised US$450 million at a US$5 billion valuation in June 2024)
• Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi (a Canadian autonomous trucking company)
• Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1Password (a cloud-based password management tool)
• Dali Rajic, president and COO of Wiz (a cloud security platform)
• Alex Israel, co-founder and CEO of Metropolis (an AI and computer vision platform)
• Jonathan Ross, founder and CEO of Groq (an AI chip startup)
• Keily Blair, CEO of OnlyFans
• Autumn Peltier, Indigenous rights activist

All of our summaries will be published on the Web Summit Summary Service page.

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Useful links

• Collision website: https://collisionconf.com/ 
• Collision media kit: https://collisionconf.com/media/media-kit  
• Collision images: https://flickr.com/photos/collisionconf 
• About Web Summit: about.websummit.com