As it adjusts to being a weekly, not daily print outlet, London’s Evening Standard is reportedly set to use technology to revive one of its most famous writers. Deadline reported that late art critic Brian Sewell could be returning, thanks to AI.
Which technology will be used had not been made public, nor had there been comment from the paper or its editor at the time of writing. The first exhibition on the digital critic’s agenda is reportedly “Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” at The National Gallery. Quite how a Large Language Model can opine on visual mediums remains to be seen. Furthermore, the potential use of a digital journalist comes at the same time as the paper is set to lay off 150 staff, 70 of those from editorial positions. It is unlikely to improve what seems to be a rather bleak mood at the outlet.
The Evening Standard was a daily feature on the streets of the British capital for nearly 200 years, but last week it shifted to only printing once a week, on a Thursday. It has gone through iterations before. The outlet previously moved from being a paid-for paper to a free sheet. I discussed the latest move on last week’s podcast episode with Charlotte Tobitt.
