When journalists use AI: Notes from a thought-provoking conversation

Last week, I joined a journalism panel sponsored by the San Francisco Press Club to discuss a trend that’s introducing big, often jarring changes, to our profession: AI.

The conversation turned out to be so thought-provoking and controversial that it inevitably continued beyond the event on 微软 ’s Mountain View campus.

Three days after the panel, 彭博资讯 ’s Rachel Metz published an essay “How Important Is It to You That a Human Writes the News You Read?” which includes her reflections on our discussion.

She mentioned a remark that she said "caught me by surprise." In fact, the comment surprised me, too.

VentureBeat ’s Michael Nu?ez shared how the news site’s reporters use AI tools to write their articles. When asked if VentureBeat had disclosed that practice, he answered: “I don’t think our readers care, to be totally honest. Tweet that out, if you want.”

Four days ago, Michael Nunez published a “Letter from the editor: How generative AI is shaping the future of journalism and our newsroom,” in which he called Rachel’s essay “a sensationalized account of how AI tools like ChatGPT are infiltrating newsrooms.”

That’s unfair. Rachel wrote a thoughtful essay on a pressing issue that every journalist should be be thinking about. Besides, she left out other comments from the panel that I personally found even more troubling.

The San Francisco Press Club posted a video of the entire event which I am sharing here so you can check out what turned out to be a fascinating discussion.

The Bospar team also produced a transcript of the conversation.

AI is already being used in newsrooms. That’s not news. And yes, it will likely become more widely-used (as a Bospar survey found.)

During the reception after the panel, I had a chat with some members of the local San Francisco media who said AI may actually help, especially given all the cuts in our industry, automate some important tasks like posting weather and law enforcement alerts or even offering a readers in a local community an easy, readable summary of a city council meeting agenda.?

But that practice has to be disclosed. That’s a no brainer. It should be standard practice for any journalism organization.

During the forum, Michael Nunez said, “We're only a year or two away from the first masterpiece that is created using artificial intelligence. That could be a Pulitzer Prize winning report, that could be a piece of music. I think that this stuff is extremely powerful for creators.”

That was another remark that stunned me. Will the next Pulitzer scandal involve a winning entry that was later exposed as a creation of AI??

The panel discussion made me reflect on another issue: what the rapid adoption of AI means for young and future journalists.

“Frankly, I think that the AI model is always more clever than me because it includes all of the written text throughout all of history,” Michael Nunez said. “So it's all of my favorite writers from Esquire magazine, plus all of my favorite writers from Rolling Stone, plus all of the newer writers that I've been following.?

“I think that, put in the right hands, it can turn a great writer into a phenomenal writer. ... It feels like it is so much more talented than I'll ever be.”

ZDNET columnist Chris Matyszczyk offered a light-hearted response, but one that I felt underscored what should be a really serious concern about the impact of AI on young journalists and on journalism education and training.

“Maybe you should just believe in yourself more,” Chris said. “I'm really concerned about you. Is it possible that because of your enthusiasm, you're already abdicating your own talents? You're actually maybe better than you think.”

I have no doubt that AI will help solve -- and is solving-- many of the world’s biggest problems, from homelessness which I wrote about, climate change, to combating diseases.

Writing articles on deadline, including crafting a catchy or compelling lead and nutgraf, shouldn’t be one of them. That’s not a problem!?

The sometimes excruciating task of reporting and writing a story should be a challenge that every journalist should take on and embrace over and over again. That’s how you get better, stronger, faster, more eloquent and more capable of thinking critically of the issues, events and communities you’re writing about.

Nunez noted how AI has been described as “an E-bicycle for the mind,” adding, “I think it's closer to a rocket ship for the mind.”

Personally, when working on a daily or breaking news story, I’d rather have a strong cup of coffee, or while slogging away at night on a longform feature or a big project, a glass of Chardonnay… or two.

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I’d like to thank the San Francisco Press Club and Microsoft Bay Area for hosting the event. Special thanks to Curtis Sparrer and Kimberly Setliff Barnes of Bospar for producing the transcript. I’m posting it as a Google doc. If there are errors, please let me know so I can fix it.? As Kim told me, “Otter.ai isn’t a perfect beast.”

Also tagging friends and colleagues in media and PR who were at the event, and other technology leaders and experts with whom I have had engaging conversations about AI.

And yes, I wrote this myself with no help from an AI tool.

Krystal Hu Julie Jammot Boone Ashworth Jon Swartz Steve Clayton Deanna Contreras Shawn Villaron Katherine Ann Rowlands Dan Rosenheim Margaret Carpo Snigdha Sen Tom Beermann Louis Rosenberg Robert E. Siegel Michelle McIntyre