The Future Is Now How AI Is Revolutionizing Journalism - Texas Managing Editors Conference 2024

This presentation explores the transformative impact of AI on journalism, showcasing how it's revolutionizing newsrooms through automation, intelligent assistance, and data-driven storytelling. Discover real-world examples of AI in action, from automated reporting to personalized news experiences. Learn about the ethical considerations and future possibilities of AI in journalism, and gain practical insights on how to get started with AI in your newsroom.

1. The Future Is Now: How AI Is Revolutionizing Journalism Texas Managing Editors Conference, April 2024. | Temple, Texas. by Alex Garrido Dir. Digital Marketing & Analytics, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

2. Overview The landscape of journalism is rapidly evolving, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) playing a pivotal role in this transformation. AI presents unprecedented opportunities to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and personalization in newsrooms of all sizes. This presentation aims to demystify AI, explore its current applications in journalism, and equip you with the knowledge and tools to harness its power responsibly.

3. The AI-Powered Newsroom

4. Automated Reporting The Associated Press uses AI to automate earnings reports stories. Bloomberg uses AI to identify key trends and anomalies in financial data. The Washington Post's Heliograf AI system helps write election stories. The Guardian's ReporterMate AI assists journalists in finding story leads.

5. Intelligent "Assistants" AI tools assist journalists with research, transcription, fact-checking, and even suggesting article angles. Perplexity : AI-assisted research. Notebook LM : AI notetaking and summarization tool. Google AI Studio : Multimodal AI tool to transcribe audio or video. Descript : AI enhanced video editing. Otter.ai : Records audio, transcribes notes, and generates summaries.

6. Data Journalism Machine learning helps journalists analyze massive datasets to uncover stories and patterns. BBC's "Juicer" AI monitors 850 news sources in 15 languages, identifying 11,000 daily news trends. Google Pinpoint : Analyzes audio, video, images, docs to help find relevant information and quotes

7. Engaging Audiences with AI

8. Personalized Experiences AI powers content recommendation systems that surface relevant articles to each user. The New York Times uses a generative AI system called Editor to create personalized newsletters and push alerts for its readers based on their interests and behavior. Bloomberg employs "Cyborg," a generative AI technology, to assist in composing complex financial reports. It efficiently processes numerical data to generate insightful articles tailored to readers' interests. Los Angeles Times utilizes " Quakebot ," a sophisticated AI system, to swiftly produce news articles about earthquakes that are relevant to its local audience.

9. Intelligent Paywalls AI optimizes paywalls and subscription offers based on user behavior.

10. Moderation Assistance AI helps filter online comments to weed out toxicity and abuse. National Public Radio (NPR) partnered with Google's Jigsaw to use their " Perspective API " to moderate comments. The Wall Street Journal uses machine learning algorithms to detect spam, off-topic posts, and abusive language in its comments sections. The Guardian's AI moderator helps manage the 70,000 comments received daily.

11. Challenges and Ethical Considerations Algorithmic Bias : If not carefully designed, AI can reflect and amplify societal biases around race, gender, age. Transparency and Trust : News orgs must be transparent about how they use AI to maintain reader trust. Journalism Jobs : While AI may automate some tasks, it is currently augmenting rather than replacing most journalists. Accountability : Organizations need clear policies around responsibility for AI-generated content.

12. The Future of AI in Journalism Deeper Investigations : Advanced data mining and pattern recognition will superpower investigative reporting. Hyper-Personalization : Individualized news experiences will become the norm as AI gets better at understanding each user. Dynamic Storytelling : Expect more interactive, immersive, and personalized story formats powered by AI. Fact-Checking : AI will play a growing role in real-time fact-checking and fighting mis/disinformation.

13. Getting Started with AI Step 1 Identify repetitive tasks in your newsroom that could be augmented by AI Step 2 Experiment with existing tools for transcription, research, newsletter generation, etc. Step 3 Provide AI training for your team, with a focus on practical applications and ethics. Step 4 Develop guidelines for disclosing AI usage and handling corrections/accountability Consider… Partnering with academic institutions or tech companies on AI research and initiatives

14. Useful Implementation Resources "How AI Retools, Rationalizes, and Reshapes Journalism and the Public Arena" by Felix M. Simon A custom (free) AI consultant just for you:

15. In Summary AI is already transforming many aspects of journalism, and its role will only grow. News organizations must proactively explore AI while prioritizing transparency, accountability, and ethics. When used responsibly, AI can significantly enhance journalism's speed, scale, and personalization. The future will likely bring AI-powered newsrooms that still have humans at the helm, aided by intelligent systems.

16. Stay in Touch [email protected] LinkedIn.com/in/alexgarrido Twitter: MrAlexGarrido My babies (must be a ChatGPT Plus Subscriber):

17. Get ahead with AI Learn to use machine learning for data analytics: Other great programs: