Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology still in its infancy but brings with it the promise and peril of a new information age. As AI advances, it will change how we consume information as well as how communicators and news outlets produce and distribute content.

This year, artificial intelligence will be the hottest trend in news. No industry or company will be left unscathed. From distributing stories to finding them, today’s media is about to change forever because of the technology.

AI will increasingly change how information is gathered, processed, and reported on. With its rising popularity and capability, every major media organization is probably exploring whether or not they should be incorporating AI into their workflow—if they haven’t already. Some newsrooms are already using AI for everything from writing headlines to analyzing video content, but advances in natural language processing will make AI even more powerful for online publications.

Poised to take over our lives in the upcoming year, there’s no industry that will be more affected by AI than media and communications. From the way we find stories, to the way news is consumed, AI will change everything we think we know about news media.

News writers are starting to create stories using artificial intelligence. The danger of this is that computers may not understand the context and use of words in a way that humans do. This can result in a story having a completely different meaning to those who read it. While artificial intelligence tools can make all of our lives easier, they pose a real threat to journalistic integrity in the future.

According to a recent report, MIT researchers develop automated news writing AI technology for the Associated Press. Deep Learning allows text to be written automatically in a compelling way.

* Steve Diehlman used AI to help draft the above blog post as an example of just how powerful the technology has become. While AI may serve as a useful technology in some cases, it still lacks the critical thinking skills of a human and still has its limitations. AI is constantly learning and adapting, but we don’t believe there will ever be a direct replacement for human writers with the capability of adding nuance and personal experience to a story. So, while AI has its benefits with things like predictive text and completing thoughts in emails, the technology will never be a replacement for human thinkers and writers. [And, side note: the accompanying image was also created using AI.]