AI can creep into the newsroom, as outlets want it to Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, CNET and others have experimented with articles written by AI. But while most self-respecting journalists will decry this use case, there are several startups that believe AI can improve the news experience — at least on the consumer side. The last one to take part in the battle is Rioan “AI news anchor” designed to help readers connect with the stories and topics they care about most from trusted sources.
The new app, from the same team behind AI-powered audio journalism startup Curio, debuted at last month’s South by Southwest Festival in Austin. It has raised funding from Khosla Ventures and TED head, Chris Anderson, who also supported Curio. (The startup says the round hasn’t closed yet, so it can’t disclose the amount.)
Curio itself was founded in 2016 by a former BBC strategist Govind Balakrishnan and barrister of London Srikant Chakravarti; Rio is a new effort that will expand the use of Curio’s AI technology.
Originally developed as a feature in the Curio app, Rio scans headlines from trusted newspapers and magazines like Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Washington Post and more, then curates that content into a daily news feed that you can either to read or listen to her.
Additionally, the team says Rio will prevent users from finding themselves in an echo chamber by searching for news that expands their understanding of topics and encourages them to dive deeper.
Image Credits: Curio/Rio
In tests, Rio prepared a daily update presented in a Story-like interface with graphics and links to news articles you could tap at the bottom of the screen that would narrate the article using an AI voice. (These were full articles, to be clear, not AI summaries.) You navigate through headlines the same way you would tap a story on a social media app like Instagram.
Curio says Rio’s AI technology will not generate information and will only refer to content from its trusted publisher partners. Rio will not use publisher content to train an LLM (large language model) without “express consent,” it says.
Image Credits: Curio/Rio
Beyond the update, you can also interact with Rio in an AI chat interface where you can ask about other topics of interest. Suggested topics — like “TikTok ban” or “Ukraine war,” for example — appear as little pills above the text input box. We found the AI to be a bit slow to respond at times, but otherwise performed as expected.
Additionally, Rio would offer to create an audio episode for your queries if you would like to learn more.
Co-founder Balakrishnan said Curio users had asked Rio over 20,000 questions since it launched as a feature on Curio last May, so the company decided to port the technology to its own app.
“AI makes us all question what is true and what is not. You can scan AI websites for quick answers, but trusting them blindly is a bit of a gamble,” Chakravarti noted in a statement released around Rio’s SXSW debut. “Reliable knowledge is hard to come by. Only a lucky few have access to verified, verified information. Rio guides you through the news, turning daily headlines from trusted sources into knowledge. Checking the news with Rio leaves you feeling satisfied instead of disappointed.”
It’s hard to say whether Rio is catchy enough to warrant its own standalone product, but it’s easy to imagine an interface like this someday coming to larger news aggregators like Google News or Apple News, perhaps, or even and on individual publisher websites. Meanwhile, Curio will also continue to branch out with an emphasis on audio news.
Curio isn’t the only startup looking to artificial intelligence to improve the news-reading experience. Ex-Twitter engineers build Particle, an AI-powered news reader, backed by $4.4 million. Another AI-powered news app, Bulletin, has also launched to tackle clickbait along with offering news summaries. Artifact had also leveraged artificial intelligence before being spun off from TechCrunch’s parent company, Yahoo.
Rio is currently in early access, which means you’ll need an invite to get in. Otherwise, you can join the application waiting list at rionews.ai. The company tells us it plans to go public later this summer. (As a reward for reading this far, five of you can use my invite link to enter.)
