Are you battling a case of AI anxiety? If so, recent headlines haven’t done much to calm the nerves.
In July, OpenAI admitted that while conducting a cybersecurity test, two of its AI agents went rogue and hacked into the server of a start-up AI developer. It was the first documented case of an autonomous cyberattack.
Later that month, more than 1,300 computer scientists working for AI companies signed a statement under the banner “Pacing the Frontier” that called on the U.S. to support an international effort to prevent AI from getting ahead of the governance and technology needed to keep it under control. “There is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems,”
the statement said.
Earlier this month, in a post on X that got more than a million views, a researcher at AI powerhouse Anthropic announced his resignation and warned, “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
And days later, Dario Amodei, the CEO and cofounder of Anthropic, wrote in a self-published essay that AI technology is advancing at such a rapid pace that risk prevention measures are falling behind. “Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all,” he wrote.
These dire warnings are set against the backdrop of fierce global competition to control the growing power of AI. Donald Trump, reacting to Amodei’s warnings, countered that U.S. restraints on AI development would give the edge to China.
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Catastrophic predictions ripped from the pages of science fiction novels are one thing. But AI anxiety is hitting us in places that are decidedly more real-world. In our workplaces. In our schools and universities. And, of particular concern to me, in the media we consume.
Recently, I’ve written about how The Enquirer has adopted AI to give reporters and editors tools that improve efficiency and how we transparently disclose its use to our readers. Today, I’d like to talk about the challenges it poses to our business.
One of the more damaging disruptions has come from Google AI Overviews, which are rapidly replacing so-called organic search results. Where a news consumer was once presented with a list of articles to choose from, Google now distills numerous sources into a tidy little summary that eliminates the need to click through to the original source. Although prone to errors and oversimplification at times, it’s super convenient and alarmingly effective.
It’s also led to steep audience declines for publishers who rely on clicks to serve advertising or generate subscriptions. Put another way, Google is no longer the path a news consumer takes to reach a publisher; it is the final destination.
A study by market research company Digital Content Next last year found that Google AI Overviews can cause up to a 25% drop in referral traffic, depending on the content category. For publishers that rely solely on search, that’s a devastating loss in audience.
Fortunately for The Enquirer, we don’t have all our eggs in the search basket. Unlike most of our local competitors, we have paid digital subscribers who come to us directly through our apps or newsletters. We also enjoy a significant number of readers who find us on their social media feeds. And yes, we still deliver news the old-fashioned way, on paper, to your doorstep. That said, the drop in search traffic has put pressure on our business. There’s no getting around it. And some countries are fighting back.
In the United Kingdom, new laws allow content providers to opt out of Google AI Overview. And in Germany, search companies that provide AI summaries are now subject to the same laws that govern traditional publishers. I don’t expect the U.S. to follow suit. Past legislative efforts to give publishers a cut of the revenue Big Tech gets from search and news aggregation have stalled or fizzled out. But I still have hope.
A news ecosystem without search traffic can thrive if two things hold true. First, news providers must relentlessly meet the needs of their audience with independent, fact-driven and relevant reporting. Second, citizens must cherish the press freedoms provided by the First Amendment and support the news providers who keep them informed.
If either falls short, the damage to our society could be just as indelible as the threat of AI escaping the grasp of human control.
Enquirer Executive Editor Beryl Love writes a biweekly column that takes you behind the scenes at The Enquirer. Occasionally, he shares his thoughts on local issues, particularly as they pertain to a free press and open government. Email him at blove@enquirer.com. He can’t respond personally to every email, but he reads them all.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Rogue agents aren't the only AI threat. Just ask news providers | From the editor
