Industrial lore says that when you start working with a machine sooner or later an improved version will end up doing the job for you. When I finished my computer science degree, I often looked at the classified section of La Vanguardia looking for offers from programmers, analysts and systems engineers. I remember how funny bullfighter offers made me (bull driver, not animal torturer). Today they are the robots that move merchandise and shelves up and down in smart warehouses

We would be arrogant if we thought that automation only affects manual jobs, that programmers, analysts and engineers are not suitable for us; nurses, practitioners and doctors; editors, journalists and newspaper directors. When accountants started working with computers they increased their productivity until spreadsheets came along, allowing anyone to do the work that an army of accountants did. Also think about communication in a development company —secretaries, office workers, delivery people, postmen, etc.— and how today we do everything from our mobile phones.

The cycle is always the same: 1) a new technology appears that makes life easier for the worker; 2) the experience of working together person-machine serves to improve the machine, until 3) the person is replaced by the machine. Could this happen in the newspaper you are reading?

We know from three anonymous sources in the New York Times that Google has an AI-based system internally called Genesis. Google would have offered it to various media, including the New York Times itself, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. According to Google, the system uses the latest developments in AI to generate journalistic content from current events and archive information. They describe technology as “responsible” in the sense that it is in no way intended to replace journalists but to increase their capabilities. It will be useful, for example, to generate more attractive headlines or refine a text with tests of different writing styles. In no case is it intended to replace the role of journalists in the creation, reporting and verification of their articles.

I have no doubt that professionals and media working with Genesis or automated content generation systems will see their capabilities increase. But at the same time Genesis will also increase yours with what it learns from its fellow journalist. The last time newspapers relied on Google—which would augment their capabilities by bringing them traffic—it took away all advertising. If there is still any “bullfighter” offer, you will find it beforehand on Google.