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 articles written by AI. However whereas most respectable journalists will condemn this use case, there are a variety of startups that assume AI can improve the information expertise — no less than on the buyer’s facet. The most recent to affix the fray is Rio, an “AI news anchor” designed to assist readers join with the tales and subjects they’re most interested by from reliable sources.
The brand new app, from the identical group behind AI-powered audio journalism startup Curio, was first unveiled ultimately month’s South by Southwest Pageant 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 it could actually’t disclose the quantity.)
Curio itself was based in 2016 by ex-BBC 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 function inside Curio’s app, Rio scans headlines from trusted papers and magazines like Bloomberg, The Wall Road Journal, Monetary Occasions, The Washington Publish and others, after which curates that content material right into a every day information briefing you’ll be able to both learn or hearken to.
As well as, the group says Rio will maintain customers from discovering themselves in an echo chamber by searching for out information that expands their understanding of subjects and encourages them to dive deeper.
Picture Credit: Curio/Rio
In assessments, Rio ready a every day briefing offered in one thing of a Story-like interface with graphics and hyperlinks to information articles you may faucet on on the backside of the display screen that might narrate the article utilizing an AI voice. (These have been full articles, to be clear, not AI summaries.) You advance via the headlines in the identical method as you’d faucet via a Story on a social media app like Instagram.
Curio says Rio’s AI expertise gained’t fabricate info and can solely reference content material from its trusted publishers companions. Rio gained’t use writer content material to coach an LLM (massive language mannequin) with out “explicit consent,” it says.
Picture Credit: Curio/Rio
Past the briefing, you can even work together with Rio in an AI chatbot interface the place you’ll be able to ask about different subjects of curiosity. Recommended subjects — like “TikTok ban” or “Ukraine War,” for instance — seem as small drugs above the textual content enter field. We discovered the AI was typically a bit gradual to reply at occasions, however, in any other case, it carried out as anticipated.
Plus, Rio would supply to create an audio episode on your queries if you wish to study extra.
Picture Credit: Curio/Rio
Co-founder Balakrishnan stated that Curio customers had requested Rio greater than 20,000 questions because it launched as a function in Curio final Could, which is why the corporate determined to spin out the tech into its personal app.
“AI has us all wondering what’s true and what’s not. You can scan AI sites for quick answers, but trusting them blindly is a bit of a gamble,” famous Chakravarti in an announcement launched round Rio’s debut at SXSW. “Reliable knowledge is hard to come by. Only a lucky few get access to fact-checked, verified information. Rio guides you through the news, turning everyday headlines from trusted sources into knowledge. Checking the news with Rio leaves you feeling fulfilled instead of down.”
It’s laborious to say if Rio is sticky sufficient to demand its standalone product, but it surely’s simple to think about an interface like this sooner or later coming to bigger information aggregators, like Google Information or Apple Information, maybe, and even to particular person publishers’ websites. In the meantime, Curio will even proceed to exit with a deal with audio information.
Curio shouldn’t be the one startup trying to AI to reinforce the information 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 TechCrunch’s father or mother firm, Yahoo.
Rio is presently in early entry, which suggests you’ll want an invite to get in. In any other case, you’ll be able to be part of the app’s waitlist at rionews.ai. The corporate tells us it plans to launch publicly later this summer time. (As a reward for studying to the underside, 5 of you should utilize my very own invite hyperlink to get in.)
