Woodward and Bernstein: Watergate reporters warn of the limitations of AI

US newsman Carl Bernstein has warned that artificial quality (AI) is simply a "huge force" which poses challenges for the aboriginal of journalism.

AI's accelerated take-up has sparked fears of occupation losses, privateness and the imaginable to circulate misleading information.

Bernstein said "truth is the bottommost enactment for thing successful your life."

In an interrogation with the BBC's Amol Rajan, Bernstein and Woodward besides reflected connected the autumn of Nixon, the erstwhile presidency of Donald Trump and the authorities of the US and the satellite today.

Bernstein said: "We request to cognize what's existent arsenic opposed to what's false. The property is the indispensable constituent successful a assemblage of being capable to attain that."

Asked wherefore anyone should go a newsman today, helium said to find "the champion obtainable mentation of the truth".

The Chat GPT programme, which uses AI, has go wide utilized successful the past twelvemonth and Rajan work them an excerpt that the instrumentality had produced astir the 2 seasoned US journalists.

It concisely summarised who they were and said their enactment "had inspired a caller procreation of journalists and established a caller modular for investigative reporting".

Bernstein said helium wasn't enamoured by the extract and described it arsenic "an amalgam of things that person been written astir us".

He recognised portion of it from a brochure utilized for the league they had attended. Despite it being the aboriginal stages of artificial intelligence, helium said: "AI is simply a immense unit we're going to person to grapple with successful this world."

Discussing the limitations of AI, Woodward said: "I tin telephone the Pentagon and say, 'I'd similar to speech to the president of the Joint Chiefs, the apical subject man', and he's either going to speech oregon possibly not. AI can't bash that."

Their Watergate communicative began with the 2 reporters carrying retired accepted journalism, knocking connected doors pursuing a burglary, and ended by exposing the wrongdoing of President Nixon.

The brace are revered successful US journalism for their award-winning reporting, and their publication astir Watergate was adapted for the large surface successful All the President's Men.

The movie came retired successful 1976 and starred Robert Redford arsenic Woodward and Dustin Hoffman arsenic Bernstein.

Bernstein drew a parallel betwixt the melodramatic events surrounding the resignation of President Nixon and those astir the extremity of President Trump's clip successful office.

"We ne'er thought we would spot it with different president. It happened adjacent much truthful and adjacent much dangerously with Trump," helium said.

This year, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News paid retired astir $800m (£643m) implicit its reporting of the 2020 statesmanlike election.

Murdoch owns galore media outlets, including the Times, the Sun and the Wall Street Journal, arsenic good arsenic Fox News.

Asked whether Rupert Murdoch has been a unit for good, Bernstein said: "Instead of being remembered for his imaginativeness successful presumption of what helium did with the movie business, with changing tv shows similar South Park, each of this has been overwhelmed by promoting, encouraging and accepting a civilization of untruth that has been the hallmark of his journalism".

"I deliberation successful presumption of his legacy, it is going to beryllium evil due to the fact that helium has taken untruth and made it his imprimatur."

Woodward has written galore books including ones connected Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and the CIA. Carl Bernstein, himself an writer of 5 best-selling books, is simply a regular dependable connected US quality programmes.

Amol Rajan interviews - Watergate to Trump volition beryllium broadcast astatine 19:00 BST connected Thursday 18 March connected BBC Two.