Gilbert believes that AI can help solve some economic problems in journalism by assisting in story creation and reporting. He encourages local journalists to experiment with AI and establish policies for its use. In his ideal scenario, AI would enable journalists to deliver important information to large audiences in a way that is easily digestible and engaging, thus increasing the value of journalism to its consumers.
Key takeaways:
- Jeremy Gilbert, who oversees the Knight Lab at Northwestern University, believes that artificial intelligence (AI) can transform journalism by automating mundane tasks and enabling more personalized storytelling.
- Gilbert argues that the conversation around AI in journalism is mostly driven by fear, particularly the fear of job loss. He emphasizes that AI will not replace humans but will change how tasks are performed.
- He suggests that generative AI can help journalists sort and sift through data, figure out what questions to ask, and even help in writing structured queries to interrogate large data sets.
- Gilbert also believes that generative AI can help create more personalized news content, tailored to the reader's device, time of day, level of English fluency, and familiarity with the topic. However, he does not believe that AI can solve the economic problems facing local news.