• by Ray Schultz , June 4, 2024

News site ARLnow is discontinuing a daily newsletter that was created with generative AI. 

The closure will occur this week as ARLnow launches a new email format for its Afternoon Update. But it could return as it irons out the wrinkles. 

ARLnow’s morning newsletter was produced with an automated process that provided AI summaries of the previous day’s articles.  

The morning summaries were generated via ChatGPT APIs “in a writing style somewhat similar to that of Morning Brew,” ARLnow writes.  

There were both pros and cons to the effort. 

Morning open rates were higher than those of the afternoon edition. Click rates were “only 25% lower,” despite providing full summaries, ARLnow adds.   

The negatives also included that it was difficult to get the AI to set a time context. In addition, the writing was often “cringe-y or corny,” and there were occasional factual inaccuracies.