By Fitri Hazim Hazam
KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — Artificial intelligence-based technologies are still unable to entirely take over the work of humans, especially in the field of journalism.
Media Selangor’s deputy editor, Mohamad Khairul Nizam Bakeri, said AI was always meant to replace existing technologies but not human intelligence.
“In the past, a reporter who receives a press statement had to first make sense of its content and then write out a story, before sending it to the editor. These days, AI can replicate the whole process in just 15 seconds, and I understand the concerns surrounding this.
“However, we need to understand that AI was created to replace the technologies that we have at present, like Google and Google Search. What’s lost are jobs that are unable to adapt to AI as AI essentially changes how we approach our work and eases our work processes,” he said.
Khairul Nizam was speaking during the ‘Bicara Semasa’ programme on the topic ’Ethics, Algorithms, and AI: The Newsroom in the New Era’ produced by Media Selangor for National Journalists Day (Hawana) 2025 at the Sunway Putra Mall, here.
Another panellist, Hilal Azmi, who is the head of social media at Astro Awani, said the growing importance of AI poses a challenge to fresh graduates due to a decrease in jobs in the media industry.
“Operations in many news rooms have scaled down, and so, new graduates looking for jobs must no longer just ‘want to be a journalist’. As fresh hires in a news agency, they must innovate and learn in whatever role they are given,” he said.
Hilal also spoke of the possibilities that AI may offer these new journalists.
“Perhaps they work for five years first in a news agency. Thereafter, they can even start thinking of setting up their own news site with just a handful of editors, and get the news from digital journalists and the help of AI,” he added.
