Future of Journalism pt. 2

Work of Tomorrow

Second on the program today is Zohar Dayan. Dayan is the CEO of Wibbitz, a company that automates video production for content creators, particularly journalists and writers. Christian speaks with him about the use of artificial intelligence and the process of creating automated video. To use Wibbitz, a human writes an article and inputs it into the program. They then describe the kind of article and video they want to create, and Wibbitz generates a summary of the content for use in a video. Later, they insert media—whether it be videos or still images—from one of their many partners around the world that are overlaid with text. This process takes anywhere from five seconds to five minutes, depending on complexity. Dayan mentions that it usually takes producers about 3-4 hours to create comparable videos individually. This efficiency also allows for more time spent customizing. Creators can choose to use a voiceover and if so, whose voice should be used. They can edit the content after a draft is made and make it fit their vision quickly. Wibbitz can also learn from the edits that the human being makes, and the AI can train itself to make better videos moving forward. Standard engagement metrics are also used to consistently improve the software. Wibbitz’s goal is not to replace video producers. Instead, its technology allows for producers and editors to spend more time on their content than on the mechanics of video production. With video taking up a larger and larger portion of all internet content, it could help bring journalism to much wider audiences.