Posted in Academic papers Ethics

Algorithmic Exclusion: The Fragility of Algorithms to Sparse and Missing Data | Catherine Tucker

“. . . we need to stop focusing just on outputs and process, and should also consider missing inputs and missing outputs in algorithmic policy.“ Catherine Tucker When data is the diet for algorithmic prediction, accuracy depends on more than…

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom

From the classroom to the newsroom: A critical route to introduce AI in journalism education | Leslie Salgado Arzuaga

“Issues such as the differences between narrow and general AI, data fundamentals, non-code tools for journalism, algorithms as amplifiers of social bias, and the distinctions between automation and AI are among the questions that need further consideration in journalism programs…

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom

Imagination, Algorithms and News: Developing AI Literacy for Journalism | Mark Deuze and Charlie Beckett

“. . . what new human journalism practices are there that don’t just broaden or deepen the existing production model, but serve to re-imagine it and its outcomes?“ Mark Deuze and Charlie Beckett Threats of automation are proportional to the…

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom

Generating Location-Based News Leads for National Politics Reporting | Diakopoulos et al

Leads for U.S. political coverage are surfaced by algorithms in another development from the emerging field of computational news discovery. The lead author of this paper describing the project is Nick Diakopoulos, a professor at Northwestern University and author of…

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Posted in Academic papers

Automation, bots and algorithms in newsmaking. Impact and quality of artificial journalism | Miguel Túñez-López et al

The authors provide a thorough account of the progression ‘from artisan journalism to artificial journalism.‘ They compare writing by algorithms and humans, and project several implications of artificial journalism to come, including: Changes from efforts to control the story to…

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Posted in Academic papers Ethics Featured articles

The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines | Jobin et al

Seventy-four sets of ethical guidelines have been developed for AI since 2016. It makes a total of 84 ethics documents currently in circulation. Sources split fairly evenly between government and private industry, each contributing about 22% of the total. The…

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Posted in Academic papers Featured articles

Artificial Intelligence and Journalism | Broussard et al

This article from JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATIONS QUARTERLY is like reading the opening remarks from a well produced panel. Six scholars present ideas about AI in journalism. Author and NYU professor Meredith Broussard warns against technochauvinism: ‘let us not perpetuate…

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Posted in Academic papers

Atomising the news: The (In)Flexibility of Structured Journalism | Jones & Jones

Automated systems present trade-offs in craft. In the academic journal DIGITAL JOURNALISM, authors Rhianne Jones and Bronwyn Jones examine two R&D systems at BBC. Among several observations, they find readying material for algorithmic retrieval takes more time than writing for…

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom Featured articles

Making Artificial Intelligence Work for Investigative Journalism | Stray

‘AI has barely touched investigative journalism, let alone transformed it.’ Benefits of AI in investigative journalism should be weighed against its limitations, says Jonathan Stray in the academic journal DIGITAL JOURNALISM. Stray explores how AI systems have have been used…

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Posted in Academic papers

How to Blend Journalistic Expertise with Artificial Intelligence for Research and Verifying News Stories | Missaoui et al

How do journalists perceive artificial intelligence? Six UK researchers wanted to find out to help develop an AI tool that is ‘sympathetic to the way journalists work.’ Their study sample yielded three themes: Perception – There’s generally high awareness that…

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Posted in Academic papers Trust

Mirroring to Build Trust in Digital Assistants | Metcalf et al

The chattiness of an AI-generated voice impacts how much it’s trusted and varies by user, according to researchers at Apple. They found useability increased when the conversational style of a voice assistant more closely matched individual preferences. They suggest conversational…

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Posted in Academic papers

Good News, Everyone! Context driven entity-aware captioning for news images | Biten et al

Ali Furken Biten and his co-authors report about an algorithm that can improve automated caption writing. Algorithms only know what they are instructed or what they can learn from data. That means that machine learning algorithms typically express only what…

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Posted in Academic papers Trust

Trust in Public Policy Algorithms | Kennedy et al

‘We find a stunning degree of trust in algorithms relative to other sources across all of the experiments.’ There is an ‘urgent need’ for more public awareness of algorithms reports this research team after conducting six studies of public attitudes….

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom

The Bright Future of News Automation | Linden

Carl-Gustav Linden says images of robots at keyboards don’t depict the real story of automated journalism. Current developments are simply new kinds of software for news work, he says, something that’s been going on for years. He believes automated systems…

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Posted in Academic papers

Chatbots on the Rise: A New Narrative in Journalism | Veglis & Maniou

Andres Veglis & Theodora A. Maniou offer a high-level survey of the evolution of chatbots, their uses in news, and associated issues. Chatbots simulate a conversation where one end of the exchange is an algorithm. They may be defeated when…

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Posted in Academic papers Trust

What kind of news gatekeepers do we want machines to be? Filter bubbles, fragmentation, and the normative dimensions of algorithmic recommendations | Nechushtai & Lewis

Efrat Nechushtai and Seth Lewis burst filter bubbles in this paper about choices made by news algorithms. They researched automated story selection by Google News in the 2016 US Presidential election. They found liberals and conservatives were shown the same…

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom

Libel by Algorithm? Automated Journalism and the Threat of Legal Liability | Lewis et al

Seth Lewis and his co-authors examine culpability when possible wrongs result from news stories generated by algorithms. They conduct their analysis using US libel law and assess how fault may be determined when algorithms choose what goes in a story….

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom

Putting Europe’s Robots on the Map: Automated journalism in news agencies | Fanta

Alexander Fanta looks at European news organizations using AI-enabled tools. His paper presents insights about current practices and opinions from users. SEE FULL PAPER  Download PDF (free)   Fanta, A  (2017) ‘Putting Europe’s Robots on the Map: Automated journalism in news…

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Posted in Academic papers AI advances

When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts | Grace et al

When Katja Grace and co-authors first released this paper in June 2017, it provoked worldwide headlines. Their findings showed AI experts believe there is a 50% probability AI will ‘outperform humans in all tasks’ by 2062. The paper presents a…

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom Ethics

Automating judgment? Algorithmic judgment, news knowledge, and journalistic professionalism | Carlson

Matt Carlson says algorithms may challenge journalistic authority. He argues that journalistic judgement and algorithmic judgement should not be intertwined. AUTHOR Matt Carlson, Department of Communication, St. Louis University. ABSTRACT ‘Journalistic judgment is both a central and fraught function of…

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Posted in Academic papers

The Robot as Cub Reporter: Law’s Emerging Role in Cognitive Journalism | Kirley

Elizabeth Kirley foresees a rise in ‘cognitive journalism.’ She examines the legal norms this may challenge, including how the law views personhood. ABSTRACT ‘Today’s journalist is immersed in news production that no longer treats robot-written news as a mere reference…

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Posted in Academic papers Ethics

Ethical Challenges of Algorithmic Journalism | Dörr & Hollnbuchner

Konstantin Nicholas Dörr and Katharina Hollnbuchner present a framework for considering ethical issues when algorithms generate news. AUTHORS Konstantin Nicholas Dörr, Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, Media Change & Innovation Division, University of Zurich Katharina Hollnbuchner, Institute of…

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Posted in Academic papers Trust

Giving Computers a Nose for News: Exploring the limits of story detection and verification | Thurman et al

Using algorithms for story discovery heralds a new phase for social media says Neil Thurman and his co-authors. They look at the implications when algorithms assess social posts and take a detailed look at one in particular, SocialSensor. Their study…

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Posted in Academic papers

Mapping the field of Algorithmic Journalism | Dörr

Konstantin Dörr examines Natural Language Generation (NLG) and its uses for preparing news. He includes analysis based on talks with 13 service providers. AUTHOR Konstantin Nicholas Dörr, University of Zurich, Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, Media Change &…

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Posted in Academic papers

Media Law and Copyright Implications of Automated Journalism | Weeks

Lin Weeks lays out questions for case law when news writing is automated. She wrote the paper while a J.D. candidate at NYU. ABSTRACT ‘New computer algorithms are capable of taking data-heavy input, such as stock prices, and outputting paragraphs…

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Posted in Academic papers AI in the newsroom

The Robotic Reporter: Automated journalism and the redefinition of labor, compositional forms, and journalistic authority | Carlson

Matt Carlson points out how algorithmic reporting may challenge journalistic authority. His paper includes an account of the formative period for Narrative Science, one of the pioneers in Natural Language Processing (NLP) for journalism companies. AUTHOR Matt Carlson, Department of…

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Posted in Academic papers Trust

Algorithmic Accountability | Diakopoulos

Nick Diakopoulos examines the power of algorithms. He considers how they function, their influence in society, and suggests approaches to increasing accountability. His paper analyzes five cases in journalism. He is Director of the Computational Journalism Lab at Northwestern University,…

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Posted in Academic papers AI advances

Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk | Yudkowsky

‘It is acceptable to fail at AI and at Friendly AI. It is acceptable to succeed at AI and at Friendly AI. What is not acceptable is succeeding at AI and failing at Friendly AI.’ Eliezer Yudkowsky says understanding intelligence that is artificial…

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