AI's role at S4K
Adapting to and embracing technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI) is top of mind for all companies, including us here at S4K.
A large percentage of the content we read in our daily curation work revolves around AI and large language models (LLMs) – opportunities and challenges, usage suggestions, or how to prompt for the best outcomes. In a vast sea of content and uncertainty surrounding AI, reflecting on what this technology means for S4K is crucial as we move forward.
At S4K, we constantly experiment with AI and test its limits. Looking back at this past year, LLMs have enhanced our operations by suggesting alternative text formulations, performing spell checks, automating repetitive tasks, and developing new functionalities within our internal curation tools. Additionally, using the AI translation engine DeepL, we are now able to offer our 1 Minute Summaries in a variety of languages at the click of a button. We are also exploring how AI can enable us to extend our offerings further, such as providing audio translations for our 1 Minute Summaries.
Looking at these various AI implementations at S4K that allow us to save time and improve the range of our offerings, one takeaway is that none of them are at the core of our business – curation. Indeed, AI is still not there when it comes to pulling together quality curations that keep in mind our clients’ preferences. As we move through our daily curation work, we note the value of the human touch in assessing content quality – spotting irony, promotions, political preferences, or other topics that may be sensitive to our clients. This also shines through in our rich editorial discussions where we select angles from content pieces to highlight, omit or reformulate in our summaries to capture the nuances of clients’ requests.
While AI is a long way off from replacing curation experts, it plays a crucial role by freeing up time and offering supporting tools for them to focus on what they do best: harnessing their human intuition and skills to uplift the quality of our curation offerings.
