Could AI help journalism?
Hi,
My name is Sara Forni, AI Product Manager at Atex, and this is MyType, a newsletter dedicated to journalism, innovation and artificial intelligence.
Every fortnight we will explore a topic related to this evolving field to discover the pleasure of 'digital joynalism' together.
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Now, let's get started!
Could Artificial Intelligence help journalism?
We know very well how difficult it is to answer this question. Perhaps utopian. We’re unlikely to do it in this newsletter and we probably won't have a clear answer in months or years from now either.
However, we know that there is a lot of enthusiasm for what technology could offer in terms of helping the journalism sector, from news production to the automation of repetitive tasks. On the other hand, especially in this sector, several problems related to the use of AI in newsrooms are also emerging. For example; the spread of fake news, copyright infringement, plagiarism, or the misattribution of non-existent sources.
At the end of March, a photo of Pope Francis wearing a Moncler jacket while walking through the streets of a major European city, began to circulate and made headlines.
“Take a photo of the Pope wearing a Balenciaga or Moncler jacket, strolling through the streets of Rome or Paris”
was the prompt - the textual instruction that generated the image that became known as 'Monclero'. The image, passed off by many as a real photograph, was instead a fake made by Pablo Xavier, a bricklayer from Chicago who enjoys making images with Midjourney - one of the generative AI models specialising in the generation of extremely verisimilar images - in his spare time.
A few days later, the same happened to former US President Donald Trump, who was immortalised in an orange jumpsuit behind bars and put in handcuffs by the police. In that case too, these were fake images, made by Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative journalism platform Bellingcat and who, as he later declared, 'was only joking'.
The fear of being replaced
Many journalists are afraid that AI will replace them. Which is not an unfounded fear. In June, Axel Springer, one of Germany's largest publishers (owner of Bild, Die Welt, and the American Business Insider), announced that some journalists could be replaced by AI.
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to make independent journalism better than it ever was – or simply replace it,” CEO Mathias Doepfner said in an internal letter to employees.
Although these events may be frightening, one thought arises: what will happen to the cornerstones of editorial work, such as ethics, accuracy, responsibility, and fairness that only a human being can guarantee? The main problem with generative AI, is precisely that of content reliability. Here then, we are at a starting point rather than the end. We would like Artificial Intelligence and its recent developments to be experienced as an opportunity for journalism and not as a threat. We call it a 'conscious revolution'.
A revolution that has already begun
We are certainly not the first ones to talk about these topics. For newbies, therefore, we believe it can be very useful to get a general overview and start setting some benchmarks in the field. Many more will follow, episode after episode.
Generative AI in the Newsroom, is a project with the aim of collectively develop the capacity for responsible use of generative AI in news production. The project is edited by Nick Diakopoulos*, associate professor in Communication Studies and Computer Science (by courtesy) at Northwestern University (Illinois, USA).
JournalismAI, is a global initiative that empowers news organisations to use artificial intelligence responsibly. It’s a project of Polis - the LSE's journalism think-tank – and it is supported by the Google News Initiative. LSE support innovation and capacity-building in news organisations to make the potential of AI more accessible and to counter inequalities in the global news media around AI.
Google News Initiative, it is now 20 years since Google invested in the development of projects that combine journalism and innovation. On their website you can find free courses (with certifications) to keep up to date and acquire digital skills, which do no harm. There is also one on the basics of Machine Learning, which is fundamental for understanding how Generative AI works.
The Associated Press was one of the first news organizations to leverage artificial intelligence and automation to bolster its core news report. Today, they use machine learning along key points in our value chain, including gathering, producing and distributing the news.
In this webinar AP showed in 2017 (six years before the arrival of ChatGPT and others) how the newsroom was implementing automation in its systems.
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Stories & Tools
How Reuters integrated AI to classify its videos, decreasing editing and publishing time
How The New York Times uses Machine Learning To Make Its Paywall Smarter
Become an expert in the field with the JournalismAI Starter Pack
8 artificial intelligence tools for freelancers
*Could AI give technology giants more control over the news? Here is one of the Nick Diakopoulos speeches at the Perugia 2023 Journalism International Festival (IJF23)
Here are all the other webinar at the IJF23
That's all for today!
There would be no 'digital joynalism' without sharing. We don't want this channel to be a one-way street. So for any ideas, suggestions and thoughts on the subject, don't hesitate to email me at sforni@atex.com!
Have a good weekend,
Sara