AI Vs. Old-School: Legacy Journalists Unclear On How The Technology Will Help

• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 21, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is bound to help publishers and journalists do their jobs, right? Don’t count on it.

On the contrary, journalists don't seem to have a clue about just what use AI will be to them, judging by AI in Journalism Futures, a study by the Open Society Foundations.  

The research is based on a process involving both journalists and technology experts, culminating in a workshop in Piedmont, Italy, in April. The result?

“The workshop produced near-unanimous agreement that AI would fundamentally transform the information ecosystem, but also difficulty in articulating specifically how this transformation might occur, with participants often defaulting to extensions of the status quo,”  says an executive summary written by GPT-4 based on the full draft report and lightly edited by the authors. 

The remainder of the report was not done using AI. So what did they (honestly) determine? Here are 10 findings:

1. Most participants believe that AI will transform news and journalism. 
2. But they can’t say how. Most were unable to describe specific scenarios that would lead to a transformation. 
3. And, they doubt that the legacy news business will successfully adapt to AI.
4. The future visions offered by journalists are less transformational than those provided by technologists. 
5. Indeed, most scenarios were rooted in the journalistic status quo. 
6. Journalists tend to see  the impact of AI in terms of power dynamics, and technologists in view of its value to audiences. 
7. The participants tend to see Ai not as a tool they can use to reach high-level objectives, but as a force or a regime, 
8. Vaguely defined “all-in-one” solutions are of little help in discussing the future. 
9. The participants mostly want a systematic approach to discussing changes in the business.      
10. Most are overwhelmed by the complexity of AI and its potential import for news and information. 

Perhaps we should be relieved after reading these findings.