While Twitter and Discord are busy unleashing misinformation and hate speech, two powerful media companies with big ambitions – The Atlantic and Vox Media – have seemingly cut a deal with the devil. These future-forward moves could also be a glimpse into the future of news-making and content creation. A journey into these companies reveals how exactly the fate of Vox, The Atlantic and journalism in general might be affected by AI.
The digital media conglomerate Vox Media runs Vox, The Verge and SB Nation, and it has deep ties to OpenAI. It will also start using AI in more keyword searches, media content, advertising, and interaction with readers, including with a tool called The Strategist Gift Scout on Vox’s shopping site, The Strategist, that could entirely disrupt the way readers shop, and the way search works overall, as buying decisions become increasingly automated.
Meanwhile, The Atlantic builds itself into the AI system as a premium news source. There’s transparency involved; AI-generated text that draws from The Atlantic’s own database of articles will be properly cited and linked back to the original. Not only does this drive traffic back to The Atlantic, but it offers an entirely new model of attribution in the AI era. Additionally, The Atlantic Labs was introduced as an experimental hub for AI-driven journalism and product innovation. This signals a multifaceted effort on The Atlantic’s part to modernise content creation through AI.
The state of affairs at Vox Media, The Atlantic and OpenAI suggests that the AI-infused output of the collaboration promises both SEO benefits and challenges. By inserting the brand Vox into the very fabric of AI-generative content and generative tools, both Vox and The Atlantic could benefit from increased visibility and engagement. Through the strategic use of AI, these publishers can potentially claw their way to the top of search results, giving them an edge in one of the most competitive media environment today.
But it’s impossible to imagine that this deal won’t go sour in some way. This would certainly be the case if other publications experimenting with this technology are any indication. Vox Media and The Atlantic will have to walk a fine line between what AI is able to do and what it is not – one that keeps the rigour that readers expect from journalism intact.
Besides upgrading their content pipelines, Vox Media and The Atlantic might also be doing their search-engine optimisation a favour: by having AI-written content link back to their sites, they could see a substantial uptick in traffic and, by extension, more clout on the internet. If both publishers’ promises ring true – and the bylines on the pieces persist – then this might just establish a new model for what it means for a media company to ‘talk to’ artificial intelligence.
This announcement by Vox Media and The Atlantic is just one example of a growing trend where publishers try to stake a claim in the AI world in order to remain competitive in an industry that’s been forced to adapt to a digital-first reality. Some see this as companies simply trying to survive in a tough market, but rejecting the AI revolution could be an inadvertent act of self-sabotage. The real story here is whether publishers like Vox and The Atlantic are simply reacting to the media landscape, or if they’re also setting the pace.
Where Vox Media and The Atlantic lead, others will likely follow. The potential of these experiments is that it offers a model for what journalism’s future might look like: a road map for how to achieve innovation without abandoning quality. We’re at a fork in the road for journalism. It’s up to us to choose.
Vox, in this context, wasn’t just an SEO keyword – it was a talisman of an entrepreneurial media culture uniquely attuned to the possibilities of digital. Vox Media’s move into AI, like The Atlantic’s, is a visionary experiment in reconceptualising the frontiers of storytelling, reporting and consumption in an age of AI. As these publishers evolve in the wake of the AI revolution, the word ‘Vox’ could come to represent something new, and just as crucial, in the history of media invention.
And in this evolutionary tale of survival, they aren’t just passengers: they are an example, on a grand scale, of what can be done in an ecosystem of limitless digital possibilities.
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