A Tale Of Two Roads
While scanning the news to write my article this week, I realized that the news headlines, especially on artificial intelligence, have become repetitive. Upon this, I did a little more retrospective research and realized that for the last few months, major news sites have been reporting the same topics in a "heat-heat-string" logic, and even many sites have the exact same news with a straight copy-paste logic without comment. I decided to expand this analysis by keeping my sources from abroad, since most domestic sources are already borrowed from foreign sources. After all, we all have a perception of artificial intelligence in our heads and this perception is shaped by what we read/watch.
Since I get very similar results by entering the same prompts in more than one AI tool I use, I will share ChatGPT's research result with you. First, let's look at the methodology:
In the last six months, news headlines titled "AI" from high-traffic and serious publications such as Reuters, AP, TechCrunch, The Verge, WIRED were scanned. In total, 152 headlines were analyzed. The headlines were categorized based on the keywords (jobs, layoffs, safety, slop, funding, SEO, etc.) in their content. Each headline was assigned to a single category based only on the primary context (for example, if a news item evoked both "job losses" and "safety", the focal emphasis of the headline was taken into account). These categories were then subjected to frequency analysis and percentages were calculated.
The results were exactly what I expected and did not surprise me.
Keyword Categories
As you can see in the graph below, the most common headlines thrown at us are job losses due to AI. This is followed by AI's vulnerabilities and risks of harm, the concept of AI slop, and cultural criticism of the internet as a digital wasteland.
Insights (Negative/Positive Frame)
Negative Headlines (Total 50.0%)
AI Job Loss / Layoffs → 23.7
Safety & Risk of Harm → 18.4
AI Slop / Digital Trash & Culture Criticism → 7.9
These three headlines make up half of the news. In other words, in the headlines, AI is often associated with anxiety, threat, risk or low quality. Negative narratives such as fear of losing one's job, ethical/security risks and content dumping stand out.
Positive Headlines (Total 50.0%)
Product Launches (GPT-5, Copilot, new apps) → 17.1
Sector Strategy & Funding → 14.5
Search Conversion / GEO → 11.8
Occupation/Workforce Transformation (New roles) → 3.9
Education / Law / Research → 2.6
This section includes themes of AI as an area of innovation, growth and opportunity. Investment, new products, SEO transformation and new job roles are framed relatively positively in the headlines.
As a result, the news is split 50/50 between positive and negative. What is striking is that while negative headlines have emotional resonance (job loss, security, AI slop), positive headlines remain at a strategic & technical level. This risks reinforcing the "AI=threat" frame in reader perception.
Which Way to Choose?
Actually, the argument that the table and the headlines make is quite clear: AI is exactly half and half both a threat and an opportunity. Ever since I started using AI in my social life, and ever since I started writing these articles here, I have been saying the same thing. This is a revolutionary development that will transform every aspect of our lives. It is not just a technological development, but it is not a doomsday scenario either. Instead of seeing only half of the reality, we have to gain the ability to manage this duality at the same time.
I feel like Mavi Sakal (means blue beard) group wrote the song "Two Roads" for these days:
“Why are you asking me, where could i go from here
Only two roads lead away, from this place you've shown me to
But baby don't be afraid, at their ends nothing changes
By one watching far from above, they where set long ago”
It is not a question of which path we choose, the end is the same. The question is whether we will walk that path or not.