Category: AI in the newsroom

‘The automation technology enables the previews to be produced directly from data without the intervention of editors. AP reporters add details and context to the automatically generated recaps.’     AP will use autoscribing by Data Skrive with data aggregation from…

‘As datasets become bigger and more complex, machine learning models that help reporters sort and analyze data are becoming not only more sophisticated but also more accessible to reporters everywhere’ Uses of machine learning for investigative projects so far ‘have…

Introducing AI is second only to ‘shifting revenue models’ as a major challenge facing worldwide newsrooms, says a global study by INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR JOURNALISTS. ICFJ canvassed newsrooms in 149 countries and 14 languages and had 4,100 journalists and news…

‘While traditional analytics dashboards give newsrooms insights about recent performance, this project strengthens the “long-term memory of the newsroom”…. Editors can see how we’ve covered a story — looking at the type of story, length, topic and more — over…

‘Without the help of technology, it will be hard for the media because the world is getting more precarious and there is not enough time, so the question is, how can we use technology to overcome this, how can we…

‘Although it hasn’t brought about the job losses many feared (quite the opposite, in fact, according to some experts), conclusions drawn by machines are not always correct, meaning journalists need to continuously question outcomes, validate methodologies, and ensure explainability.’  The…

‘…the danger is that once again, journalism will be left chasing after the change instead of meeting the challenge.’ AI is touching journalism in several ways, from gathering through distribution, and bigger changes are ahead, writes LSE professor Charlie Beckett….

‘This is an open investigation, and we need your help monitoring the campaigns, companies, governments, and other actors involved’ Kevin Delaney, Quartz EIC Quartz will gather tips and examples from the public for a new investigative series and use machine…

‘Suthichai AI said that AI will revolutionize information by presenting news and analyzing it faster, with accuracy and in a more engaging way than conventional news presentation.’ THAI PBS reports that a distinguished Thai journalist has been reproduced as a…

‘Watson has been trained to recognize acoustic inputs—the cheers of a crowd, the sound of sneakers on a court, the impact of a ball on a racket—to determine which moments are likely to be exciting and worthy of a highlights…

BBC will use its own voice assistant on BBC platforms, including its website and BBC iPlayer, and make it available for third-party manufacturers. Its working name is Beeb, the nickname often used affectionately for the company. ‘Beeb‘ may also become…

‘news organizations are increasingly leveraging AI to change the way news is generated, produced, published, and shared’ Ron Schmelzer, a co-host of the AI Today podcast and an analyst at Cognilytica, contributes this overview in FORBES of ways AI is…

‘Am I meant to compete with a bot now? Satoshi doesn’t need to sleep, feel inspired, or even have a drop of coffee to excel at his job. How am I ever supposed to catch up with that damned bot?’…

‘According to investors, more international journals, as well as conference and patent information, will be covered by the automated systems in the future.’ The Chinese Academy of Sciences is publishing AI-generated stories in its daily newspaper, says China’s state-run news…

Canadian journalists covering the coming federal election will have background data on command with a new automated system by the Canadian Press. The system is described in J-SOURCE by its lead creator, Lucas Timmons, a CP journalist leading automation initiatives…

AI is helping a news app compete in the crowded India marketplace, according to this QUARTZ piece. Editor Ji offers ad-supported news with video and text options in English and Hindu. AI systems help create video summaries, customize presentation for…

‘AI aided the investigation by applying a journalist’s human judgment identifying a particular kind of document—like a tax return or a business plan—across the entire document trove.’  A cache of documents came from a Mauritius law firm about tax avoidance…

‘something fundamental is changing, because of the unprecedented possibilities offered by AI-powered technologies. Something so big that it requires new skills and training, learning how to get data scientists and investigative journalists on the same page, speaking the same language,…

‘From fluency in social media and audience engagement to introductory data science, these are the skills that have been consistently enumerated by scores of editors from the Times to Vox Media and beyond as foundational to successful multimedia talent.’ Advice…

‘New technological challenges and opportunities are encouraging a reflection about the deeper meaning and mission of journalism, as well as the shape and ethics of the news industry in the era of artificial intelligence.’ Google is funding an international study…

‘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…

‘the Media & Society class is designed to provide a working definition of AI, a brief history of its evolution, an overview of types of AI and some of the ethical challenges it presents.’ A class at Lehigh University in…

A Chinese-made news anchor called Lisa is ready to go to work for Russia. The Russian-speaking AI-enabled character was developed by Sogou, a Chinese search and IT company, with Xinhua TV, the state news agency for China in cooperation with…

Runs 3:01 A text-on-video highlight package for the 2019 edition of the annual Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute. OXFORD, U.K. | June, 2019

‘In the hybridization of workflows, more often than not AI technologies actually create new types of work related to things like configuring, updating, tweaking, validating, and generally maintaining and supervising systems.’ Author and professor Nick Diakopoulos predicts journalism jobs will…

Runs 29:34 Keynote talk by Google news founder Krishna Bharat at the 2019 Global Editors Summit. Bharat says journalism is the ‘immune system of democracy.’ AI tools will benefit the practice of journalism — and by extension, democracy — but…

Runs 32:19 Talk by John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg, at the 2019 Global Editors Summit in Athens. He sees AI systems for journalism making a difference in four areas: Automation of repeatable events – for example, earnings reports. Of 5,000…

Runs 41:07 A panel discussion at the GEN SUMMIT 2019 about automated systems used in three newsrooms. Moderated by Trint founder Jeff Kofman. PANELISTS Monique White – Head of AI and Information Extraction, Bloomberg News Robin Govik – Chief Digital Officer, Mittmedia Peter Buhr – Technical…

The ability to create synthetic videos outweighs detection methods by ‘100 to 1’, according to a digital forensics professor at UC Berkeley quoted in THE WASHINGTON POST. The US public is not ready for the possible consequences of deepfakes in…

‘The journalists of tomorrow will need to be trained to design, update, tweak, validate, correct, supervise and generally maintain these systems.’ Professor and author Nick Diakopolous describes what we can expect for journalistic jobs ahead. He generally is optimistic that…