WSJ News Exclusive | BuzzFeed to Use ChatGPT Creator OpenAI to Help Create Some of Its Content

In one instance, the company said new AI-powered quizzes would produce individual results. 

For example, a quiz to create a personal romantic comedy movie pitch might ask questions like, “Pick a trope for your rom-com,” and “Tell us an endearing flaw you have.” The quiz would produce a unique, shareable write-up based on the individual’s responses, BuzzFeed said. 

Mr. Peretti expects AI to assist the creative process and enhance the company’s content, while humans play the role of providing ideas, “cultural currency,” and “inspired prompts,” he wrote in his memo. In 15 years, he wrote, he expects AI and data to help “create, personalize, and animate the content itself,” rather than just curate existing content. 

BuzzFeed, which went public in late 2021 through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, last year moved to shrink its news division as it sought to make the business profitable, and said it would be doubling its creator network. The company is getting paid millions of dollars by

Facebook

META 3.23%

parent Meta Platforms Inc. to help generate creator content for Facebook and Instagram, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. 

BuzzFeed remains focused on human-generated journalism in its newsroom, a spokeswoman said Thursday.  

BuzzFeed’s move comes as ChatGPT, new chatbot technology from research lab OpenAI, generates buzz among consumers and businesses alike. Some publishers have said they are starting to discuss using AI technology, while others are already experimenting with it.

Digital technology publisher CNET, for example, recently ran a test using internally designed AI technology to help editors create explainers around financial-services topics. CNET’s Editor-in-Chief Connie Guglielmo this week said the publisher paused its test, which had led to the publication of 77 stories, after finding a number of factual errors. 

Microsoft Corp.

MSFT 1.95%

, which has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, plans to incorporate artificial-intelligence tools like ChatGPT into all of its products, Chief Executive

Satya Nadella

said last week.

Write to Alexandra Bruell at [email protected]