The press is undergoing comprehensive digital transformation. Technological solutions are applied in all stages, from content production to management, distribution and business. Some foreign newspapers have succeeding in offering articles as well as minigames and ads. Do you think Vietnam’s press agencies can do the same to attract clients, increase interaction, and gain higher revenue?

Vietnamplus, the electronic newspaper of the Vietnam New Agency, where I once worked as Editor in Chief, invented the concept ‘news game’ in 2015. Since then, the newspaper has developed a lot of games for readers. 

When celebrating the 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory, Nhan Dan newspaper also designed games and raised questions for readers to answer. For example, who planted the flag of the Vietnamese army on top of the command tunnel of French General De Castries? Who was the first Vietnamese soldier attacking Him Lam entrenched fortification?

It was great that there were so many players. Some articles might not attract high numbers of views, but the number of people playing the game was really high and people now still continue to play the game.

This method is educational as it helps people improve their knowledge. Though there is no award for gamers, people still are willing to answer 5-10 questions to assess their knowledge.

With the rapid development of technology, it is now too easy to create multiple choice questions and answer. In 2015, it was difficult work, but now, it is simple. The problem is how to exploit the games and diversify gaming products.

Some large newspapers in Vietnam began applying the method very early. We are ahead of many newspapers in the world.

Under the strategy on newspaper digital transformation by 2025, 100 percent of press agencies will have to place their content on digital platforms, and 90 percent will have digital technology to analyze and process data, as well as apply AI. What do the figures mean? How will AI (artificial intelligence) help improve press agencies’ competitiveness?

These are difficult tasks, but if press agencies cannot gain these figures, they will lose audiences. Therefore, going digital, applying technology and using AI are a must for press agencies.

Many people, when thinking about AI, imagine that machines will write articles for journalists. But they should realize that many newspapers have used AI to discover information, keep watch over audiences, trends and emerging news.

There are two trends in treating AI. First, fear and second, excessive excitement.

Many people are afraid of AI as they think AI will replace people in doing things. If so, enterprises will have to cut personnel and replace workers with robots. The moral and ethical implications of AI is now a hot topic of debate.

As far as I know, some press agencies are not allowing technology giants to access their database. The New York Times, for example, has sued OpenAI.

Meanwhile, other newspapers can see great opportunities from AI. They are willing to allow technology firms to use their data to train AI and hope their data will make the machines smarter.

However, we can see a problem that many people are too optimistic about AI as they think AI will replace people to do everything.

Some years ago, when smartphones that take photos and video were marketed, some newspapers even thought that they did not need professional photographers. And they finally admitted that they were wrong.

This is what press agencies need to think about. When using the internet and social networks, people mention the concept "hamster wheel", which means monotonous, repeated activities which cannot make any progress.

We hope that social networks can help spread our news and bring revenue, but this is unattainable. AI can suggest how press agencies need to escape the hamster wheel to find their goal.

The story here is each press agency needs to define what it really wants and what its target audience wants in order to apply AI in a reasonable way.

You may know that some websites have been discovered quietly using AI to write articles, but 40 percent of the articles have mistakes. The dangerous thing is that AI can fabricate the content or sayings of famous persons, but the sayings never existed.

So, the recommendation is that press agencies use AI for certain stages, for example, in news discovery and distribution. It would be better to not abuse AI during news production.

Thai An