Local News Is In Bad Shape-More Americans Turn To ChatGPT

OpenAI says it has received around 1 million prompts related to local news. That comes as roughly 7% of Americans now use a chatbot for news each week. Some critics see this as a problem and in certain ways, it is. LLMs can hallucinate, and advertising baked into AI products could skew coverage. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: local news is already in bad shape.

Most local affiliates are owned by a small number of companies. That alone isn’t necessarily bad but their websites are. They’re buggy, overloaded with ads, slow, and generally uninteresting. As a result, most people visit them only for headlines, not deep engagement. According to Pew Research, about 14% of Americans get their news from social media. At the time of the survey, only 1% got news from AI, but that number is clearly growing fast. For now, people who rely on AI for news are still a minority but the trajectory is obvious.

ChatGPT wants in. OpenAI recently announced a partnership with Axios, which is rolling out nine new local news communities with OpenAI’s support.

“AI can play a transformative role in supporting local journalism. Our partnership with Axios will help establish new operations in four cities, and we’re excited to see how Axios uses our technology to support quality reporting and tackle opportunities that they, and other local news organizations, face.”

— Varun Shetty, Head of Media Partnerships, OpenAI

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. As I’ve said before, local news websites leave a lot to be desired. If AI can make them better or at least more interesting that might actually be a win. God bless and Tech Talk To You Later!!!