Not sure this is categorically true, but: “LLMs suck at journalism because LLMs suck at stories. LLMs suck at discovering surprising facts of all kinds, because LLMs are designed to minimize surprises.” (Dan Fabulich, Medium)
AI & Journalism Links
This started out as a spreadsheet. Now it's a blog. And a Newsletter.
“AI models are not politically neutral nor free from bias. More importantly, it may not even be possible for them to be unbiased. Throughout history, attempts to organise information have shown that one person’s objective truth is another’s ideological bias.” (Declan Humphreys, The Conversation)
Welcome, future newsroom leaders: JournalismAI has recruited 20 participants from 17 nations for its “Skills Lab”, empowering non-technical staff in the responsible use of AI.
You do not have to use generative ai “art” because there are websites where you can get real, nice images for free (Jenn Schiffer, Live Laugh Blog)
Google steady but social and direct referrals are down: Chartbeat data shows traffic trends to 565 US and UK publishers since 2019 (Charlotte Tobitt, PressGazette)
The catastrophe of knowledge work waits to be beautiful again, and interesting, and modern: From “Mad Men” to the AI era, the problems of underconsumption. (Matt Pearce, Substack)
How Hearst’s DevHub is Building AI Tools That Work for Local News (Ulrike Langer, News Machines)
The publishers’ guide to being gaslit by tech platforms (the AI edition) (Seb Joseph, Sara Guaglione, DigiDay)
21 Ways People Are Using A.I. at Work (Larry Buchanan, Francesca Paris, New York Times). Previously: 18 journalists and news executives share how they use AI
Signs of AI writing: How Wikipedia tries to identify synthetic content.
No emotions, no praise, no mind: Extremism-scholar J.M. Berger’s three laws of chatbotics (Bluesky)
Brainstorm with a Bot: These days, we’re in an uneasy middle ground, caught between shaping a new technology and being reshaped by it. (Dan Rockmore, The New Yorker)
It’s the return of the shoe-leather reporter, empowered by an AI partner: David Cohn’s take on the Death of the Article debate.
“Transparency” and “disclosure” are buzzwords in the AI and journalism space – this report looks at the state of global research. (Center for News, Technology & Innovation)
What I Learned from Making a ‘Liquid Content’ Machine (Clare Spencer, Generative AI in the Newsroom)
