As artificial intelligence (AI) evolves, more and more professions are continuing to be affected by the new technology. One profession where AI may seem taboo is news. Journalists are utilizing artificial intelligence as a useful tool for tasks and assistance, but while some only see AI as a helpful instrument for their work, other journalists are beginning to see the potential conflict that could ensue.
AI has seen a rise in popularity in the 21st century. Whether it’s to make life simpler or to use it as a tool, AI continues to be recognized as a helpful invention.
In journalism, AI is being used for creating pitches for new stories, writing headlines and even collecting data. Journalists have come to the stance that the utilization of AI for stories is acceptable to a certain degree.
Robert Moore, founder and chief executive officer of El Paso Matters recalled times when certain parts of investigative journalism took hours of work that can now be completed in minutes with today’s technology.
“I’ve been in journalism since 1983,” Moore said. “When I first started if you wanted to know who the biggest contributors were to a particular political candidate, you had to gather up all of this paper and get a calculator out and spend hours going through it, so what used to be days is now minutes.”
Moore suggests that AI should be used as a tool in journalism, and depending on the extent it was utilized for, journalists may or may not need to disclose its use.
“If all you’ve used it for is to suggest a headline or improve search engine optimization, I don’t think you need to disclose that,” Moore said.
Furthering this idea, journalists should always double check work that has been done by AI. Without a human voice, news writing will lack that connection that is necessary in journalism.
Moore expressed that if a larger portion of a story or report was done using AI, it must be disclosed to the public and audience.
“If you wind up using it in your reporting like for drawing conclusions or analyzing data, I think given the shortcomings of AI and the problems with hallucinations and things like that, I think you have to disclose that to readers,” Moore said.
AI is not a perfect tool and mistakes are bound to happen, however these mistakes could lead to issues and controversy.
Senior Vice President of the Poynter Institute Kelly McBride, believes that changes will rise in journalism and involvements of AI, however, with that involvement could bring conflict.
“No doubt in my mind that over the next five to 10 years, AI is going to dramatically change how we do journalism and how we deliver journalism to the audience,” McBride said.
While AI is not used by all journalists, there is no reason to think AI hasn’t made its presence known in the journalism field. With rapidly advancing technology, journalists might want to approach with caution when reporting.
Joseph Montero is a staff reporter for The Prospector and may be reached at [email protected].
