Swedish newspaper has AI rap articles to appeal to young people

• •  Aftonbladet, a Swedish daily newspaper, is trying to appeal to young people.
  • One experiment involved AI-generated raps of news.
  • News sites around the world are attempting to figure out how to best use the technology.

It’s no surprise that today’s young people are less interested in traditional news media than earlier generations, with social media platforms like Snapchat and TikTok vying for their attention.

In response, Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet got creative, using AI to create rap songs that summarize the news and music to pair with written stories, the paper said. 

Aftonbladet tested the concepts earlier this month with 1,000 selected young users. The most popular song was a rap about Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, Aftonbladet reported.

“Bey is the queen of pop, she’s got the world on lock. From United States to Sweden she’s got the fans in shock,” an English-speaking robot raps over a photo of the singer. “Her show is a sensory overload. Our minds are fully saturated.” 

While the lyrics are a bit awkward and the production sounds like it was lifted from a fast-food jingle, the news does get across.

“Behind this rather cringey thing is a serious question: that young people don’t appreciate how we as an industry present our news content,” Aftonblade’s deputy editor-in-chief Martin Schori told the Press Gazette.

“This may not exactly be the future — but it’s hopefully a fun and engaging test,” Schori added in his article about the test. 

Aftonbladet did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.

“News as music,” as the pilot program was called, came out of a focus group of young people that sought to reimagine news consumption for younger generations. Other concepts included an AI-driven news therapist and an algorithm that would surprise readers with positive news. 

Aftonbladet acknowledged the murky ethics of AI-generated content.

“The AI-generated rap is also, as hip-hop tends to be, loaded with some values. This is not how we traditionally report news, where instead we strive to report news neutrally,” Schori wrote.

The paper has an AI policy in place, which allows journalists to use the technology for various parts of their jobs, including to create headlines, interview transcriptions, and video subtitles.

“However, everything we publish is produced, edited and fact-checked by a human,” the policy says. “In the rare cases where we publish AI-generated material, this will be clearly stated.”

Other news organizations have also begun experimenting with AI.

Buzzfeed announced at the beginning of this year that it would use ChatGPT to generate quizzes and other content. This month, at an online investor forum, the digital publisher announced that users were spending 40% more time with AI-generated quizzes than human-made ones. 

The change has occurred as Buzzfeed has undergone multiple rounds of layoffs, with the most recent taking place in April, when it shut down its news arm.

Technology site CNET, too, has used AI to produce content, though it was forced to issue major corrections to AI-generated story earlier this year.