Two back-to-back developments are likely to set the pace at which artificial intelligence plays a major role in journalism.

The first being Google, the big daddy of big tech, which has announced that it is making an AI tool that can generate article text and headlines.

In the face of it, this Google announcement may not be something that is very exciting since today there a lots of AI tools that are available for people, including journalists which can considerably enhance the quality of a news story.

“Our goal is to give journalists the choice of using these emerging technologies in a way that enhances their work and productivity… just like we’re making assistive tools available for people in Gmail and in Google Docs,” a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying in a media report.

But, what may set apart this Google AI tool from others is how it is developed.

For that to happen, Google will have to enter into a partnership with a major publisher or a consortium of publishers so that those stories can be used in a large language model (LLM).

I expect the next big announcement from Google to be that it is entering into a partnership with a major news group. This may happen sooner rather than later.

The other major development is the one in which OpenAI, the creator of the wildly popular ChatGPT, has tied up with the global media titan, Associated Press, to licence AP’s archive of news stories.

“The arrangement sees OpenAI licensing part of AP’s text archive, while AP will leverage OpenAI’s technology and product expertise,” the two organizations were quoted as saying in a joint statement.

This means that OpenAI will have access to one of the world’s most trusted sources of fast and accurate news in multiple formats.

This also means that OpenAI has seemingly stolen a march over Google in developing an AI tool that is tailored for journalism.

The race between Google and OpenAI will certainly be an exciting one, with its outcome probably reshaping the contours of journalism as we know it today.