THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HANDBOOK offers journalistic considerations for working with AI, based on real practices drawn from their early work in automated journalism. It was published in early 2017.
SUMMARY
The 24-page booklet covers staffing and training, the fit for AI systems in newsrooms, and limitations observed. Their conclusions:
- Technology changes, journalism doesn’t
- AI is susceptible to the same biases and errors as humans
- AI is not a silver bullet
- Journalists can best leverage AI once they understand the technology
- There are ethical considerations inherent in journalism’s use of AI
NOTABLE SECTIONS
- Risks associated with unchecked algorithm news generation
- Potential for workflow disruptions
- Growing gap in skillsets
AUTHORS:
- Francesco Marconi – Manager of strategic planning and development
at The Associated Press and an innovation fellow at The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University - Alex Seigman – Computational journalist and a master’s candidate
at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism - Machine Journalist – An amalgamation of various artificial intelligence systems.