The Wall Street Journal is experimenting with AI-generated article summaries that appear at the top of its news stories. The summaries appear as a “Key Points” box with bullets summarizing the piece. The Verge spotted the test on a story about Trump’s plans for the Department of Education, and the Journal confirmed it’s trialing the feature to see how readers respond.
The Wall Street Journal is testing AI article summaries
Look for the ‘Key Points’ box above articles.
Look for the ‘Key Points’ box above articles.
Image: The Verge
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
The “Key Points” box has a message explaining that an “artificial intelligence tool created this summary” and that the summary was checked by an editor. The box also points to a page about how the WSJ and Dow Jones Newswires use AI tools.
“We are always assessing new technologies and methods of storytelling to provide more value to our subscribers,” Taneth Evans, head of digital at the WSJ, says in a statement to The Verge. “To that end, we are currently running a series of A/B tests to understand our users’ needs with regards to summarization. The newsroom does this hand-in-hand with colleagues in technology and while speaking with readers at every step of the way. We also disclose how we leverage artificial intelligence tools to support our journalism whenever it’s used.”
AI summaries have been spreading across news sites and platforms. USA Today owner Gannett has also experimented with adding AI-generated summaries to its articles — it’s even using a similar “Key Points” format. Apps like Particle summarize articles using AI, too. Personally, I’d recommend reading full articles when you can in case the AI tool hallucinates something that’s incorrect.
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