9 AI tools to save journalists time and money

AI tools for journalists are rapidly becoming better. Whether it’s amplifying writing, producing and enhancing visuals, or generating audio versions of text articles – both newsrooms and individual journalists can save time and money by using AI-powered services. 

Here’s a list of nine AI-powered tools that could come in handy for writers, editors and social media managers — and that are generally great fun to play around with.

Editor’s note: undoubtedly, there are more awesome startups not included here, so please let us know via newsroom@thefix.media or on social media.

Hemingway

You might have heard of the startup Grammarly that makes your writing better, suggesting more optimal wording as you type, which is best suited for non-native English speakers. For those with more advanced English, Hemingway is another solution that promises to make your texts “bold and clear”.

The online editor is free. Alternatively, you can also get an offline version of the editor for Windows and Mac.

DeepL

Automatic translation services have seen steady improvement in recent years. Gone are the days of generic computer voices and awkward pronunciations in less popular languages.

While Google Translate has long been the world’s go-to automatic translation service, you can also give the German AI startup DeepL a chance – the service brands itself as “the world’s most accurate translator”. It’s free to use and even has mobile apps.

Quillbot

Quillbot is a writing tool useful for copywriters and social media managers looking to paraphrase or rewrite texts. The free version allows users to choose from two modes and pick how close to stay to the original copy. The premium version lets you paraphrase over 125 words at once quicker and choose from five more modes.

CopyAI

Another tool for copywriters is CopyAI. It uses artificial intelligence to do your job for you. The Blog Post Wizard even promises to write a text just by feeding it a title and topic. The website also has dozens of other handy tools and offers a free seven-day trial. 

Writesonic

Writesonic is a tool for automated text generation. Whether you’re looking to write up ads, landing pages, product descriptions or full blog posts, the service says it won’t let you “run out of ideas”. So next time you experience some writer’s block, give it a go. The free trial lets you produce 6,250 words a month.

Summari

Summari is a SEO tool, whose core offering is upgrading links into engaging previews, but the resource also allows users to generate an AI summary of any article online — and although it may not always exceed your expectations, generally conveys the gist of the text. There are also browser extensions and mobile apps available.

BeyondWords

As more and more people prefer to listen to content on the go, converting your writing into audio is a sound idea indeed. BeyondWords comes to the rescue and offers dozens of different voices to stress headings, quotations, and more. The free version allows you to convert 30,000 characters per month which generally suffices for an individual user and to test the service for organisations.

Editor’s note: disclosure – The Fix has a commercial partnership with BeyondWords. This article is not part of the partnership, and the service was included here independently.

Photosonic

Writesonic’s AI art generator Photosonic allows users to experiment with any prompt and produces some cool (and odd-looking) pictures. The free version lets you “draw” 10 images. Below is the product we got by inputting The Fix’s name.

Craiyon

Likewise, Craiyon, formerly DALL-E mini, makes AI paint some original stuff. The service is actually free and produces six pictures to choose from at a time. Here is what we got with the same prompt.

Bonus – tools to find information

Talk to Books

As much as we loved spending days in university libraries, Google has provided a decent alternative with its Talk to Books project. You can now browse over 100,000 titles seamlessly from the comfort of your armchair (admittedly without that old book aroma).

Consensus

Consensus is another tool allowing you to find that specific bit of information needed for your research from millions of sources. The startup sets out to make science accessible and consumable for all through the use of AI. COVID-19 vaccines, parenting styles, genetically modified foods, mindfulness – it’s all there.

NB/ We may have inadvertently used some of these tools ourselves while writing this text.

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