AI could also be inching its method into the newsroom, as retailers like Newsweek, Sports activities Illustrated, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, CNET, and others have experimented with the format. However whereas most respectable journalists will condemn this use case, there are a selection of startups that suppose AI can improve Prime Time News24 expertise — at the very least on the buyer’s facet. The newest to affix the fray is Rio, an “AI information anchor” designed to assist readers join with the tales and matters they’re most eager about from reliable sources.
The brand new app, from the identical crew behind AI-powered audio journalism startup Curio, was first unveiled finally month’s South by Southwest Competition in Austin. It has raised funding from Khosla Ventures and the top of TED, Chris Anderson, who additionally backed Curio. (The startup says the spherical has not but closed, so can’t disclose the quantity.)
Whereas Curio itself was based in 2016 by ex-Prime Time News24 strategist Govind Balakrishnan and London lawyer Srikant Chakravarti, Rio is a brand new effort that can broaden using Curio’s AI expertise.
First developed as a characteristic inside Curio’s app, Rio scans headlines from trusted papers and magazines like Bloomberg, The Wall Avenue Journal, Monetary Occasions, The Washington Submit, and others, after which curates that content material right into a day by day information briefing you possibly can both learn or hearken to.
As well as, the crew says Rio will hold customers from discovering themselves in an echo chamber by in search of out information that expands their understanding of matters and encourages them to dive deeper.
Picture Credit: Curio/Rio
In checks, Rio ready a day by day briefing offered in one thing of a Story-like interface with graphics and hyperlinks to information articles you can faucet on on the backside of the display screen that may narrate the article utilizing an AI voice. (These had been full articles, to be clear, not AI summaries). You advance by means of the headlines in the identical method as you’ll faucet by means of a Story on a social media app like Instagram.
Curio says Rio’s AI expertise received’t fabricate data, and can solely reference content material from its trusted publishers companions. Rio received’t use writer content material to coach an LLM (giant language mannequin) with out “specific consent,” it says.
Picture Credit: Curio/Rio
Past the briefing, you may as well work together with Rio in an AI chatbot interface the place you possibly can ask about different matters of curiosity. Advised matters — like “TikTok ban” or “Ukraine Battle” for instance — seem as small capsules above the textual content enter field. We discovered the AI was generally a bit of gradual to reply at instances however, in any other case, it carried out as anticipated.
Plus, Rio would provide to create an audio episode on your queries if you wish to study extra.
Co-founder Balakrishnan mentioned that Curio customers had requested Rio over 20,000 questions because it launched as a characteristic in Curio final Might, which is why the corporate determined to spin out the tech into its personal app.
“AI has us all questioning what’s true and what’s not. You may scan AI websites for fast solutions, however trusting them blindly is a little bit of of venture,” famous Chakravarti, in an announcement launched round Rio’s debut at SXSW. “Dependable information is tough to come back by. Solely a fortunate few get entry to fact-checked, verified data. Rio guides you thru Prime Time News24, turning on a regular basis headlines from trusted sources into information. Checking Prime Time News24 with Rio leaves you feeling fulfilled as a substitute of down,” he added.
It’s arduous to say if Rio is sticky sufficient to demand its standalone product, but it surely’s straightforward to think about an interface like this in some unspecified time in the future coming to bigger information aggregators, like Google Information or Apple Information, maybe, and even to particular person publishers’ websites. In the meantime, Curio can even proceed to exit with a concentrate on audio information.
Curio isn’t the one startup trying to AI to boost Prime Time News24 studying expertise. Former Twitter engineers are constructing Particle, an AI-powered information reader, backed by $4.4 million. One other AI-powered information app, Bulletin, additionally launched to deal with clickbait together with providing information summaries. Artifact had additionally leveraged AI earlier than exiting to Prime Time News24’s guardian firm Yahoo.
Rio is presently in early entry, which suggests you’ll want an invite to get in. In any other case, you possibly can be part of the app’s waitlist at rionews.ai. The corporate tells us it plans to launch publicly later this summer season. (As a reward for studying to the underside, 5 of you need to use my very own invite hyperlink to get in.)
