One of the world’s leading news organizations, the Financial Times tests an AI chatbot. This chatbot is named Ask FT. In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at what this bot can do, how it works, and how it’s developing. Stay tuned.
Financial Times Generative AI
You’ve probably heard of The Financial Times (FT), a globally respected authority in journalism recognised internationally for its comprehensive and accurate information. Ask FT is a new generative AI chatbot created by the Financial Times, designed to provide subscribers with organised, natural language answers to their prompts.
What is Different About Ask FT
Ask FT is kind of like other AI bots in the market, such as ChatGPT or Gemini. But what sets it apart is where it gets its information from. Rather than taking their data from different sources, Ask FT taps into the Financial Times’ trusted sources and decades of archived information. This ensures users that its answers are accurate and reliable.
Ask FT Answers
Ask FT’s responses come with a unique feature, numbered references linking back to the original Financial Times articles, providing a convenient way to verify sources. Moreover, Ask FT provides the publication timeframe for these articles.
For instance, when asked about the leadership of Microsoft’s AI products, Ask FT responded from recent news about Mustafa Suleyman:
“Mustafa Suleyman currently runs Microsoft’s consumer-facing AI products and division as the head of Microsoft AI, reporting directly to Satya Nadella [1,2,3]. He was brought in from Inflection AI to expand Microsoft’s focus on developing generative AI for personal consumer use [1,2,3,4,6].”
mentioning the timeframe from March 1st, 2023, to March 20th, 2024.
(The numbers are the references to the related articles)
Ask FT Mistakes
Although as some of the Financial Times AI reviews suggest, there have been instances of inconsistency in its answers. For example, in one test, Ask FT mistakenly included Nikki Haley in its response to a question about the candidates in the 2024 US presidential election, even though she had already withdrawn her candidacy.
What is Ask FT Powered by?
As of now Ask FT is powered by Claude, the large language model (LLM) developed by Anthropic, however this might change according to FT chief product officer Lindsey Jayne saying: they are “approaching this as ‘model agnostic’ and seeing which one meets our needs best.”
Is Ask FT Available to Public?
Financial Times AI is currently accessible to a selected few hundred paid subscribers in the FT professional tier, tailored for business professionals and institutions for beta testing and feedback gathering.
Unfortunately, if you’re not part of this exclusive group, you won’t get to try out the chatbot just yet. However, rest assured that Ask FT will continue its beta phase as the FT team further refines and evaluates its performance.
Conclusion
The introduction of this new smart chatbot by the Financial Times, shows how the company is keeping up with new technology and meeting the need for quick and easy access to information. Like any new tech, Ask FT might face challenges at first, but it’s exciting to see how it will grow and change the way we access information in the future.
