Newsroom Robots

Ritvvij Parrikh: Personalization Vs. Editorial Judgment? At The Times of India, You Can Have Both Oct 23, 2024

Ritvvij Parrikh, Senior Director of Product at Times of India, joins host Nikita Roy to discuss how AI-powered personalization is transforming news distribution and why newsrooms need to rethink their approach to revenue optimization.

Parrikh, who leads product development at India's largest English-language news organization, discusses their innovative approach to news personalization that increased click-through rates by 85% on web and 40% on mobile. His team developed a proprietary recommendation system that automatically optimized content distribution for individual readers. As an industry thought leader, Parrikh has been instrumental in demonstrating how newsrooms can build AI systems that balance editorial judgment with reader preferences while maintaining journalistic integrity.

Key topics include:

Building newsroom-specific recommendation systems that understand news cycles
The critical importance of real-time data infrastructure for modern newsrooms
Why newsrooms should master focus on building the operational infrastructures to power AI

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Martin Schori: The AI Hub Powering Innovation at Sweden’s Aftonbladet Sep 12, 2024

Martin Schori, Deputy Managing Editor and Associate Publisher at Aftonbladet, joins host Nikita Roy to discuss how Sweden’s largest newsroom built an AI hub, developing a wide range of innovative editorial tools, including a suite of AI-powered tools for the newsroom and a chatbot for the EU elections. As the Program Lead for the AI Hub, Schori shares the biggest wins, challenges, and key lessons from their experiments with AI in journalism.

Key topics include:

- The creation of Aftonbladet’s AI hub and its impact on editorial workflows

- How Aftonbladet used AI to engage readers with an EU election chatbot

- Analyzing coverage using AI to track gender and diversity representation

- Ethical considerations and maintaining editorial control with AI tools

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Your Questions Answered: A Live Q&A Session in Collaboration with the Online News Association Sep 02, 2024

In this special episode of Newsroom Robots, host Nikita Roy steps into the spotlight to answer your pressing questions about AI. Recorded during a session with the Online News Association (ONA), this episode covers a range of topics, from ethical considerations in AI-generated content to practical tools that can elevate your work.

AI Tools Mentioned:

Perplexity - A generative AI search engine that provides quick insights on any topic.
Wobby - A data journalism tool that connects to open datasets, where you can ask questions in plain language and get clear AI-generated insights, reports, and visualizations
OpusClip - Converts long-form videos into short, engaging clips for social media, ideal for repurposing content.
YESEO - A Slack-based AI tool for generating headline suggestions and SEO metadata, widely used in local newsrooms.
Google's Pinpoint - A tool for investigative journalists using AI to search through massive amounts of documents, including handwritten ones.
Natural Reader - An AI tool that reads text aloud with natural-sounding voices, perfect for those who prefer listening over reading.
Whimsical AI - Creates diagrams and visualizations from your data inputs directly within ChatGPT.
Elicit & Consensus - AI-powered search engines for academic research, useful for journalists covering specialized beats like health and science.
Nota - A versatile tool for creating SEO content, summarizing articles, and even converting articles into videos.
GPT for Sheets and Docs, Claude for Sheets - These tools bring AI directly into your Google Docs and Sheets, enabling you to draft, edit, and generate insights without leaving your document or spreadsheet.

If you're interested in learning more about how AI is being implemented in newsrooms, sign up to receive a series of case studies on AI and journalism, researched and written by Nikita in collaboration with the Online News Association.

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Congresswoman Anna Eshoo: Shaping the Future of AI Policy Aug 09, 2024

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), co-chair of the U.S. Congressional AI Caucus and one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in AI, shares her perspective on the opportunities and risks of AI with host Nikita Roy.

With over three decades of experience in the U.S. House of Representatives representing parts of Silicon Valley, Rep. Eshoo has been a leading voice on technology and its implications. Her long-standing engagement with tech policy provides a unique perspective on the current AI revolution.

Key topics discussed in this episode include:

The growing concern over AI models training on news content without compensation.
The challenge of combating misinformation in the age of generative AI.
Bipartisan efforts in Congress aimed at democratizing AI.
Addressing the threat of job displacement and evolving societal frameworks to keep pace with rapid technological advancements.

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Natali Helberger: Audience-Centric Approaches to AI Ethics in Media Jul 24, 2024

Natali Helberger, Professor of Law and Digital Technology at the University of Amsterdam, joins host Nikita Roy to explore the complex ethical landscape of AI in journalism. In this conversation, they discuss everything from recommendation algorithms and filter bubbles to the EU AI Act and the future of responsible AI adoption in media.

Recognized as one of the "100 brilliant women in AI ethics" to follow worldwide, Helberger is also the co-founder of the AI Media and Democracy lab at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on how AI and algorithms are transforming society and the media, with implications for law and governance. Helberger chairs the Council of Europe Expert Group on AI and Freedom of Expression and serves on the advisory board of the Reuters Institute for Journalism at Oxford. She regularly advises national and European policymakers, including the European Commission, European Parliament, and UNESCO.

Key topics include:

The ethical challenges of AI-driven personalization in news
The importance of audience inclusion and feedback in AI systems for news
The limitations of simply labeling content as "AI-generated" and the need for more meaningful transparency
An analysis of the EU AI Act and its implications for media companies

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Garance Burke: A Journalist's Guide to Investigating Artificial Intelligence Jul 08, 2024

Garance Burke, a global investigative journalist at the Associated Press, joins host Nikita Roy to discuss the crucial role of journalism in holding AI systems accountable and the challenges reporters face in covering this complex topic.

Burke, a global investigative journalist with The Associated Press, has been at the forefront of investigating the power and impact of AI technologies on society. Her data-driven reporting has prompted federal investigations, cabinet-level resignations, and congressional hearings. Burke's Pulitzer Prize-finalist work inspired an Emmy-winning documentary with FRONTLINE PBS. As a 2020 Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence-John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford, she researched algorithms in government decision-making. Burke also led the development of the AI chapter in the AP Stylebook, which provides journalists with best practices for covering AI models.

Key topics include:

Investigating algorithmic bias and the data behind AI systems
Strategies for reporting on AI's deployment and performance
Educating the public on AI biases and impacts on democratic processes
The need for balanced and informative reporting on AI to avoid hype
AI's Impact on Elections and Voter Manipulation

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Ole Reissmann: Revolutionizing a Legacy Newsroom with AI at Germany's Der Spiegel Jun 19, 2024

Ole Reissmann, Director of AI at Der Spiegel, joins host Nikita Roy to discuss how the legacy German news organization is harnessing AI to enhance their journalism and streamline newsroom workflows.

The episode explores Der Spiegel's initiatives to integrate AI into various aspects of its operations, from automating routine tasks like SEO title generation and fact-checking to developing audience-facing AI products, such as a browser plugin and audio article updates. Ole also shares insights on building an automated gender report using AI and the value of collaboration among German news organizations in advancing AI initiatives.

Topics discussed include:

Fostering a Culture of AI Experimentation in the Newsroom
Exploring Audience-Facing AI Products
Testing and Prototyping AI Products
Building Foundations for Future AI Projects
Enhancing User Experience and Personalizing Content with AI
Building an AI-powered gender report
Collaborating with German news organizations on AI initiatives
Personal experiments with AI and lessons learned

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Jaemark Tordecilla: Unlocking the Potential of Custom GPTs for Newsrooms Jun 05, 2024

Jaemark Tordecilla, Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, joins host Nikita Roy to discuss the potential of using custom GPTs for journalistic purposes. Jaemark is the former editor-in-chief and senior assistant vice president of News and Public Affairs at GMA News, the Philippines' leading digital news organization.

For the past year as a Nieman Fellow, Jaemark has been pushing the boundaries of what's possible with custom GPTs – personalized versions of ChatGPT that can be tailored with specific instructions, knowledge, and capabilities to serve a particular purpose or task.

In this episode, Jaemark shares his experiences creating custom GPTs like the COA Beta Assistant to summarize dense government audit reports. He dives into how custom GPTs can streamline processes across the journalism value chain - from data analysis and visualization to content creation and fact-checking.

The episode explores the ease of building these AI tools without coding, integrating custom knowledge bases, and leveraging advanced capabilities like image recognition.

Nikita and Jaemark also discuss real-world use cases, the power of democratizing access to AI for smaller newsrooms, and navigating the limitations of these models.

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Adrian Gill: How AI Image Generation is Revolutionizing the Graphic Design Industry May 26, 2024

Adrian Gill, the founder and CEO of Ad Hoc Industries and the former creative director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, joins host Nikita Roy to explore the transformative impact of AI, especially image generation tools, on the creative design industry.

Gill brings a wealth of knowledge in creative direction, strategy, and brand management from his career, which includes serving as the Vice President for PUMA's $1.8B Global Footwear Division. His expertise spans across industries, from leading a global brand campaign for Barbados Tourism featuring Rihanna to producing innovative film content for VMware to simplify software virtualization.

In this episode, Adrian and Nikita explore:

How to enhance design workflows and speed up the ideation process with AI.
How AI tools to discover innovative design solutions and expand creative boundaries.
The role of AI in visual storytelling and its synergy with human creativity.
Ethical considerations and responsible AI practices in design.
Strategies for designers and creatives to remain competitive in an AI-driven landscape.

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Mattia Peretti: Balancing AI Innovation with Journalistic Integrity May 01, 2024

Mattia Peretti, former manager of Journalism AI at the London School of Economics and current Knight Fellow at the International Center for Journalists, joins host Nikita Roy to share insights on balancing AI innovation with journalistic integrity.

The episode explores an AI literacy initiative at Internews, which created a platform for knowledge exchange and significantly improved the organization's understanding and application of AI technologies.

The discussion also delves into the development of generative AI guidelines for newsrooms, using the example of The Guardian. The focus is on creating adaptable, value-driven principles rather than strict prescriptions. This approach allows for flexibility in the face of rapid technological changes while ensuring that the organization's foundational values remain intact.

The Guardian's experience serves as a valuable case study for other newsrooms looking to navigate the integration of AI technologies.

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Florent Daudens: Building an AI-Literate Newsroom at Radio Canada Mar 29, 2024

Florent Daudens, the outgoing Director of Newsgathering and Deployment at Canada's National Public Broadcaster, Radio-Canada, joins Nikita Roy to share how he led AI literacy initiatives in their newsroom. In his role, Florent focused on enhancing the news department with AI as well as managing operations across national, parliamentary, and foreign bureaus.

With a passion for AI and technology trends, Florent has contributed to the digital evolution of major Canadian media outlets for over 15 years. Previously, he worked as the News Director at Le Devoir, where his tenure was marked by a digital transformation. This included the creation of specialized video and data visualization units and the introduction of innovative journalistic products. Florent also dedicates time to teaching digital journalism at the University of Montreal.

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Ezra Eeman: Navigating the AI Frontier at the Dutch Public Broadcaster NPO Mar 14, 2024

Ezra Eeman, the Director of Strategy & Innovation at the Dutch Public Broadcaster NPO joins Nikita Roy to discuss NPO's AI strategy, revealing the complexities of navigating this frontier within a decentralized network of 13 broadcasters. From leveraging AI for accessibility and efficiency to cautious experiments with synthetic voices and avatars, NPO's approach offers a fascinating case study in balancing innovation with public trust.

With almost 20 years of experience in media, innovation, and journalism, Ezra has been at the forefront of digital transformation. Previously he was the Change Director at international media company Mediahuis, where he was responsible for coordinating newsroom transformation and digital acceleration. He also served as the Head of Digital, Transformation and Platforms at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and prior to that, he was head of an innovation lab and journalist at VRT, the Flemish public broadcaster.

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Craig Newmark: Philanthropy's Role in Supporting Journalism in the AI Era Mar 02, 2024

Craig Newmark, internet pioneer and founder of Craigslist, joins Nikita Roy to talk about the past, present, and future of AI.

Craig is a visionary whose profound contributions have shaped the landscape of digital platforms and supported the pillars of journalism.

As the founder of Craigslist, he revolutionized the classified ads sector and transformed how people buy, sell, and connect within their local communities.

Beyond his impact on the internet's landscape, Craig is a dedicated philanthropist, notably through the Craig Newmark Philanthropies where he has become a beacon of support for the work of journalists.

His philanthropic journey is marked by significant contributions to some of the leading journalism schools, including the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism, aiming for a future where education in journalism is accessible to all, free of tuition.

Craig's generosity has been instrumental in establishing the Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University.

His vision for a well-informed public has also led to supporting the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public addressing the critical issues of mis- and disinformation.

Craig Newmark Philanthropies has contributed to Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society which supported the launch of a three-year initiative called the Institute for Rebooting Social Media.

Craig has contributed to several other universities, focusing on initiatives that support journalism, cybersecurity, public service for veterans, and the digital information ecosystem.

In this episode, Craig shares his thoughts on the challenges posed by large language models and how philanthropy plays a vital role in supporting the integration of AI into journalism.

📢 Announcing the launch of the Newsroom Robots Academy.

The Academy will offer short online courses designed to introduce you to generative AI, complete with industry-specific insights.

Join Nikita Roy, who will co-teach these courses alongside Jeremy Caplan, writer of the Wonder Tools newsletter and Director of Teaching and Learning at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

Upskilling has become more crucial than ever. Through the courses offered at the Newsroom Robots Academy, you'll be able to leverage the capabilities of generative AI in your work as a media professional.

Sign up now to be among the first to know when course registration opens.

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How Germany’s Ippen Digital is Fine-Tuning Large Language Models for Their Newsroom Feb 17, 2024

From fine-tuning large language models, to discussing modular journalism, to developing an AI tool to help track misinformation, there’s a lot to unpack from this week’s conversation with Alessandro Alviani, the product lead for AI at Germany’s Ippen Digital. We build upon the first part of our conversation from last week, where Alessandro shared his editor-centric approach toward building AI products.

A core takeaway from this week's episode is the value of fine-tuning large language models on a newsroom’s content.

Fine-tuning is the process of taking a pre-trained language model that understands general textual patterns and customizing it by training the algorithm on writings from a specific domain – in this case, Ippen Digital's own journalistic content. By fine-tuning models on Ippen Digital's extensive corpus of local German reporting rather than just using out-of-the-box models like GPT-4, they are working on enhancing accuracy for tasks like headline writing, lead paragraph generation, and article summarization.

Their editors and developers work side-by-side to ensure the AI's outputs match the desired quality standards and editorial voice.

Additionally, Alessandro spotlighted their work in building personalized news experiences enhanced by modular journalism or “intelligent content.” Modular journalism involves breaking down articles into discrete, interchangeable components centered on key semantic themes – historical context, opposing views, critical data, etc. These content blocks can then be dynamically mixed and matched by an algorithm to generate personalized news experiences for different reader interests and preferences.

We also discussed how developing AI assistants to break down a human-written news story into modules can enable the creation of customized article versions matching different reader interests or news products.

Such repackaging of information to cater to diverse audiences is one of the potentials of AI in the newsroom. Thoughtful implementation of augmented writing tools could catalyze more engaging, personalized news without compromising editorial integrity.

Of course, prudent precautions are necessary to develop algorithms in the newsroom. While AI has much potential for accelerating and enhancing reporting, we must understand its limitations in fully automating high-caliber journalism. The heart of quality storytelling – weaving together evidence and narratives to reveal truth and empower civil discourse – remains an irreplicable, fundamentally human endeavor.

Ippen Digital’s stance to develop AI solutions that empower rather than replace reporters seems wise. By bonding human creativity and AI productivity with an ethical approach to automation, journalism may structurally shift yet hold fast to its sacred commitments to transparency, accuracy, and public enlightenment.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation available now on Apple, Spotify, Google, and other major podcast platforms.

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Alessandro Alviani (Part One): Building AI Products with an Editor-Centric Approach Feb 09, 2024

Rather than AI replacing journalists, Alessandro Alviani believes editorial teams can leverage AI to enhance and augment their work.

Formerly as the Editorial Director at the Microsoft News Hub, Alessandro experienced firsthand the consequences that replacing human editors with automated systems caused. Drawing from his experience he says that the key is to empower journalists with AI tools rather than displace them. "It's our responsibility to help editors develop a more realistic approach to AI," he says.

Now, as the Product Lead on AI at the German newsroom Ippen Digital, Alessandro has led the creation of a range of innovative AI products - from interview transcription tools to illustration generators - with transparency, responsibility, and human oversight as key principles.

What I found particularly interesting was his three-pronged strategy towards an editorial-first approach to building AI products: internships with his product team, having two editors embedded within his 10-person team, and deep-dive discovery sessions across their newsrooms to understand editorial needs.

This approach, which emphasizes collaboration and hands-on involvement, led to innovations such as an editorial assistant that was developed with input from human editors. With transparency and human oversight as guiding principles, Ippen's AI team built a self-evaluation system on top of their generative AI tools to automatically evaluate the quality of their output.

Through their internal AI training programs, Ippen Digital strives to give every employee - not just technologists - a solid understanding of how AI models function, where they fall short, and why human judgment is irreplaceable.

My biggest takeaway from Alessandro was this: by proactively shaping how AI gets built and deployed, journalists have an opportunity to set their direction. The future of news isn't human versus AI - it's human augmented by AI. And for the survival of quality journalism, getting that balance right is imperative.

In the second part of our conversation out next week, Alessandro discusses how Ippen Digital is working on fine-tuning large language models for specific newsroom tasks. He also discusses his collaboration with colleagues at The Times of London as a 2022 JournalismAI fellow, where he developed a tool and methodology for journalists to track manipulated narratives, especially those from state-run media.

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Jeff Jarvis (Part Two): Rethinking the journalism business model in the age of AI Feb 01, 2024

Jeff Jarvis joins Nikita Roy in the second part of his conversation to discuss how journalism business models will be affected by the rise of generative AI.

In part one, Jarvis shared his thoughts on whether generative AI companies should be allowed to use news media's copyrighted content to train their AI models.

Jarvis has been the director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and the author of "The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and its Lessons for the Age of the Internet." He also co-hosts the podcasts "This Week in Google" and "AI Inside"..

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Jeff Jarvis (Part One): Should AI have the ‘right to read’ news like humans do? Jan 23, 2024

Jeff Jarvis joins Nikita Roy to discuss whether AI companies should be allowed to use news media's copyrighted content to train their models.

Jarvis is a veteran journalist and professor who recently testified to the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and Law on AI and the Future of Journalism. He's been the director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He is the author of six books, most recently "The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and its Lessons for the Age of the Internet." He co-hosts "This Week in Google" and "AI Inside" podcasts.

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Aliya Itzkowitz and Sam Gould (Part Two): Potential of Multimodal AI and Autonomous AI Agents in Publishing Jan 16, 2024

Aliya Itzkowitz and Sam Gould from FT Strategies join Nikita Roy to discuss the capabilities of multimodal AI and AI agents within the publishing industry. Discover further insights and practical examples of these technologies in the Newsroom Robots newsletter, featuring insights from host, Nikita Roy.

Aliya is a Manager at FT Strategies where she has consulted over 30 publishers across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Her work focuses on the critical shifts facing publishers today, including rethinking revenue models and understanding how to leverage AI. Before the FT, she worked at Dataminr, bringing AI technology to newsrooms, and at Bloomberg as a journalist. Aliya has a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Sam is a data scientist at FT Strategies and has worked in consulting, helping clients to solve strategic business challenges using data. He has helped organizations in both the public and private sectors, from tech to healthcare to consumer products, define their AI roadmaps and strategies. He has also worked as a data scientist, designing and building data and AI systems. Sam designed the FT Strategies AI Design Sprint methodology working in partnership with the Google News Initiative.

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Aliya Itzkowitz & Sam Gould (Part One): Insights from FT Strategies' AI Design Sprint Day Jan 06, 2024

Aliya Itzkowitz and Sam Gould from FT Strategies join Nikita Roy to discuss their AI Design Sprint that they used to help nearly 20 publishers identify and validate potential AI opportunities.

Aliya is a Manager at FT Strategies where she has consulted over 30 publishers across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Her work focuses on the critical shifts facing publishers today, including rethinking revenue models and understanding how to leverage AI. Before the FT, she worked at Dataminr, bringing AI technology to newsrooms, and at Bloomberg as a journalist. Aliya has a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Sam is a data scientist at FT Strategies and has worked in consulting, helping clients to solve strategic business challenges using data. He has helped organizations in both the public and private sectors, from tech to healthcare to consumer products, define their AI roadmaps and strategies. He has also worked as a data scientist, designing and building data and AI systems. Sam designed the FT Strategies AI Design Sprint methodology working in partnership with the Google News Initiative.

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Nina Brown & Jared Schroeder: The Legal Implications of Generative AI in the Newsroom Dec 29, 2023

Nina Brown and Jared Schroeder join Nikita Roy to break down the intellectual property implications of generative AI models and explore the legal implications of using generative AI in newsrooms.

They examine the risks and liabilities associated with Generative AI outputs and historical legal precedents that could shape Generative AI regulations.

Nina Brown is an award-winning assistant professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She researches the legal issues with deep fakes, content regulation on social media, and emerging issues related to works created by artificial intelligence. She holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School and practiced law for several years before joining the Newhouse faculty.

Jared Schroeder is an associate professor of media law at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. His research focuses on freedom of expression and emerging technologies, particularly in press rights in the networked AI era. He is the author of three books, including his upcoming book, The Structure of Ideas: Mapping a New Theory of Free Expression in the AI Era, published by Stanford University Press.

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Felicitas Carrique: News Product Management in the Age of AI Dec 22, 2023

Felicitas Carrique, Executive Director of the News Product Alliance joins Nikita Roy to discuss the key components of building a successful AI product strategy in newsrooms. She also discusses the role of AI in the product development process and offers insights on evaluating AI tools and vendors.

As the Executive Director of the News Product Alliance she has built a community of support and practice for news product professionals and product thinkers working together toward a more sustainable and ethical future for the news industry.

The Future Today Institute's 2023 Tech Trends Report spotflighted her as "One to Watch" in the news industry for her leadership.

In her prior role as the Innovation Director at Sembra Media, Felicitas worked extensively with news organizations across Latin America, Spain, and the United States, promoting innovation and spearheading product design and systems development within the organization.

Felicitas is also a Professor and guest lecturer in several universities, including Universidad Católica Argentina, where she co-created the first news product class in Latin America.

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Referenced:

Custom GPT - AIProductGPT: Add AI to your Product

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Louise Story: How to Lead AI Innovation Across a News Organization Dec 15, 2023

How does a newsroom leader spearhead AI innovation when AI still remains a buzzword to much of their staff?

Louise Story joins Nikita Roy to highlight the opportunities AI presents for reporting, content creation, user experience, and personalization. Story also discusses the role of journalists in the AI era and the potential impact of generative AI on the business model of the news industry.

Louise is the former Chief Technology & Product Officer and Chief News Strategist at The Wall Street Journal. She’s also been the Executive Producer & Senior Editor of Live Broadcast at The New York Times and taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Yale School of Management.

With her unique blend of journalism and technology expertise, Louise has pioneered AI innovation in one of the world’s most prestigious newsrooms. She’s the industry’s first and only individual to have worked as a senior masthead news coverage leader and a chief technology officer, and the first woman to serve as CTO at a major U.S. news organization. As a veteran journalist who drove major AI implementations at The Wall Street Journal, Louise broke down seemingly abstract concepts into an actionable vision for news companies.

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Referenced:

🎧 Listen to the full conversation on leading AI innovation in media, available now on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms.

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David Clinch: The Cost-Benefit Analysis of Building vs. Buying AI Tools Dec 08, 2023

David Clinch, the Vice President of Partnership at Mather Economics and Managing Director at Media Growth Partners, joins Nikita Roy to discuss the critical choice between building or buying AI tools in newsrooms. With his extensive experience advising major publishers, David sheds light on how AI is reshaping newsroom strategies and the critical trade-offs news organizations face in the era of AI adoption.

David has worked as an international journalist at ITN and CNN, and then as a media executive at both Storyful and Mather Economics.Throughout his three decade career at the intersection of the news and technology industries David has created an unrivaled network and a skill set built on direct experience of innovative journalism and successful business strategies in the digital age. From his time as an early evangelist for the adoption of digital technology and social media at CNN, David has become an expert in both the opportunities and risks involved in connecting journalism to technology.

Helping to build a successful digital news organization at Storyful also helped him understand what is involved in developing a business strategy that can build sustainable growth and diversified revenue streams. This passion for journalism and the appropriate application of digital technology and resources is at the core of David's current work at MGP, helping news organizations not only survive, but thrive, in a way that has a real impact in society.

🎧 Tune in for valuable insights into the decision-making processes for publishers grappling with the "build vs. buy" dilemma for AI tools.

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Simon Willison: How Datasette Helps with Investigative Reporting (Part 2) Dec 02, 2023

In this second part of the episode with Simon Willison, he shares how Datasette, the open-source data exploration and publishing tool he built, could help journalists perform data analysis with minimum technical expertise. He also shares some fun use cases of ChatGPT in his personal life.

Simon, a former software architect at The Guardian and a JSK Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, currently works full-time to build open-source tools for data journalism. Before becoming an independent open-source developer, Simon was an engineering director at Eventbrite. He is also renowned for his work as the co-creator of the Django Web Framework, a key tool in Python web development.

If you're intrigued to discover how Datasette works and how it can help you in your newsroom, don't miss the opportunity to connect directly with Simon Willison.

🎧 Tune in to hear how AI has the potential to help amplify data journalism

🔔 Course registration is now open. Sign up for Wonder Tools X Newsroom Robots Generative AI for Media Pros Masterclass. A Live Cohort-Based Course taught by Jeremy Caplan & Nikita Roy. Sign up here.

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Simon Willison: OpenAI's New Features & Security Risks of Large Language Models (Part 1) Nov 24, 2023

Simon Willison, the creator of the open source data exploration and publishing tool Datasette, joins Nikita Roy to discuss the recent turmoil at Open AI and the new features unveiled at OpenAI’s first developer conference earlier this month.They discuss the security risks inherent in generative AI applications and explore the usefulness of small language models for journalists, particularly for analyzing sensitive data on personal devices.

Simon, a former software architect at The Guardian and JSK Fellow at Stanford University, currently works full-time to build open-source tools for data journalism. Prior to becoming an independent open source developer, Simon served as an engineering director at Eventbrite. He is also renowned for his work as the co-creator of the Django Web Framework, a key tool in Python web development.

🎧Tune in for a detailed exploration of the latest features from OpenAI

🔔 Course registration is now open. Sign up for Wonder Tools X Newsroom Robots Generative AI for Media Pros Masterclass. A Live Cohort-Based Course taught by Jeremy Caplan & Nikita Roy. Sign up here.

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Lynn Walsh: Building Trust in News in the AI Era Nov 17, 2023

Lynn Walsh, the Assistant Director of Trusting News, joins Nikita Roy to discuss how newsrooms should think about their relationship with audiences when adopting AI. She also highlights opportunities to use AI to enhance trust and engagement with the news.

Lynn is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who has worked in investigative, data and TV journalism for over 15 years. Currently at Trusting News, she works to help rebuild trust between journalists and the public. She is also an adjunct professor at Point Loma Nazarene University and a past national president and Ethics Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists.

🎧 Tune in for insights on how newsrooms can put in place guidelines for experimenting with AI responsibly and ethically.

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Mario Garcia: How AI is Unleashing New Creative Potentials in Journalism Nov 10, 2023

Dr. Mario R. Garcia, Senior Adviser on News Design and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, joins Nikita Roy to discuss how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing news design and creating new opportunities for visual storytelling.

Mario shares insights from his extensive research and his new book, 'AI: The Next Revolution in Content Creation,' on how AI is being applied in newsrooms globally.

Mario offers his perspective on the emerging skill of prompt engineering and discusses ways in which journalism educators can teach the responsible use of AI.

Mario is the CEO and Founder of Garcia Media, a global consulting firm, and has been involved in redesigning and rethinking more than 700 publications across 120 countries, including notable ones like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He is also the author of 15 books.

He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for News Design, the Journalism Medal of Honor from the University of Missouri for Distinguished Service in Journalism, and the Charles O'Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Additionally, People Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States.

🎧Tune in to discover how designers and illustrators can harness the power of generative AI, explore its applications in print journalism, and learn strategies for incorporating generative AI into classroom teaching.

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🔔 Introducing Generative AI for Media Pros Masterclass. A Wondertools + Newsroom Robots Collaboration

A Live Cohort-Based Course taught by Jeremy Caplan & Nikita Roy

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Paul Quigley: How NewsWhip Uses AI to Help Newsrooms Predict Viral Stories Nov 02, 2023

Paul Quigley, the CEO of NewsWhip, joins Nikita Roy to discuss how NewsWhip aids newsrooms in identifying trending stories and predicting viral news through real-time social media monitoring and analytics. He discusses how his team is integrating large language models and shares his perspective on the transformative impact that generative AI could have on the news media business model.

NewsWhip, an innovative technology, is utilized by PR professionals and journalists in over 80 countries. Leading newsrooms, including the Associated Press, Reuters, and BBC, are among its users.

NewsWhip provides low-cost access to its tools for numerous researchers, universities, and NGOs. Since 2017, NewsWhip has played a key role in tackling misinformation. It is utilized by the WHO and numerous fact-checking organizations to counter political disinformation.

Before founding NewsWhip, Paul was an attorney based in New York City, specializing in international dispute resolution. He holds law degrees from Trinity College Dublin and an LLM in International Law from NYU. He is a winner of the Emerging EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

🔔 Introducing Generative AI for Media Pros Masterclass. A Wondertools + Newsroom Robots Collaboration

A Live Cohort-Based Course taught by Jeremy Caplan & Nikita Roy

Jeremy Caplan: Director of Teaching and Learning at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and the founder of Wondertools.

Nikita Roy: Data scientist, journalist, media entrepreneur. Host of the Newsroom Robots podcast. She was a two-time semi-finalist in the Harvard President's Innovation Challenge at Harvard University's Innovation Labs and has led AI literacy workshops at places like the City University of New York's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, the International Center for Journalists, and the University of Toronto.

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Jeff Sonderman: Leveraging Generative AI to Optimize Business Processes Oct 27, 2023

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In this episode, Jeff Sonderman, the founder and CEO of Delta Flow Solutions, joins Nikita Roy to discuss the transformative potential of generative AI in streamlining business operations across analytics, marketing, product management, and content accessibility. Jeff also shares insights from his experiments with AI, particularly in converting unstructured data from PDFs into hyperlocal news reports.

Jeff is the former Deputy Executive Director of the American Press Institute, where he created the Metrics for News analytics software, revolutionizing audience data for over 200 news enterprises, and invented the Source Matters software to enhance source diversity in newsrooms. He has been a Media Transformation Challenge fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education and continues to blend innovation with journalism.

Tune in for an episode to brainstorm diverse use cases, demonstrating how generative AI can be a game-changer on both the business and product side of running a newsroom.

🔔 Introducing the Generative AI for Media Professionals Masterclass.

A live cohort based coursed taught jointly by Jeremy Caplan and Nikita Roy.

Sign up to be the first when course registration goes live.

Jeremy Caplan is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Craig Newmark School of Graduate Journalism at the City University of New York and the founder of Wondertools.

Nikita Roy is a data scientist, journalist and media entrepreneur. She hosts the Newsroom Robots podcast and has taught AI literacy workshops for the Craig Newmark School of Graduate Journalism at the City University of New York, International Center for Journalists and University of Toronto.

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Ernest Kung: How The Associated Press Built Five AI Tools for Local Newsrooms Oct 21, 2023

Ernest Kung, the AI Product Manager for The Associated Press joins Nikita Roy to share how the AP has been helping local newsrooms implement artificial intelligence into their workflows as part of the Local News Initiative. He also discusses the deal that AP signed with OpenAI and the newsroom’s recently published AI guidelines.

Before joining the AP, he was an award-winning local television news producer and writer. Ernest pursued a master's degree to shift into the technology development side of news to make it easier for journalists to do their jobs. He earned a Master of Business Information Systems with Distinction from the University of Canterbury where his research project was on AI for journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. Ernest worked for 15 years in the newsrooms of CBS-owned and affiliated stations in Los Angeles, San Diego and Portland, Oregon. He also holds a BA in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California.

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Charlie Beckett & Munmun De Choudhury: The Role of the News Industry in Safeguarding Democracy in the Age of AI-Generated Misinformation (Recorded at Online News Association's Onward 2023) Oct 13, 2023

Charlie Beckett, Professor and Founding Director of Polis, the international journalism think tank at the London School of Economics and Munmun De Choudhury, Associate Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, join host Nikita Roy in this episode. Together, they explore the intricacies of AI-generated misinformation, its potential implications on election and the role of the news industry in keeping the public informed and safeguarding democracy. This episode is a recording of the virtual panel at the Online News Association's Onward 2023 event on September 29, 2023.

Charlie Beckett is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics.He currently leads the Polis Journalism and AI project. Charlie was director of the LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission that reported on the misinformation crisis in 2018. He was an award-winning journalist at LWT, BBC and ITN. He began his news career on the South London Press and ended it as a programme editor at Channel 4 News.

Munmun De Choudhury is an Associate Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. Associate Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. She is best known for laying the foundation of a new line of research that develops computational techniques for understanding and improving mental health outcomes through the ethical analysis of social media data. Munmun's work has been recognized by multiple awards and recognitions, and her research has contributed to the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on The Healing Effects of Social Connection. Munmun serves on the Board of the International Society for Computational Social Science. She is on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee examining research on social media's impact on the well-being of young people.

Tune in for a comprehensive discussion on the evolving role of the news industry in the AI era and its pivotal role in safeguarding democracy.

🔔 Introducing the Generative AI for Media Professionals Masterclass.

A live cohort based coursed taught jointly by Jeremy Caplan and Nikita Roy.

Sign up to be the first when course registration goes live.

Jeremy Caplan is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Craig Newmark School of Graduate Journalism at the City University of New York and the founder of Wondertools.

Nikita Roy is a data scientist, journalist and media entrepreneur. She hosts the Newsroom Robots podcast and has taught AI literacy workshops for the Craig Newmark School of Graduate Journalism at the City University of New York, International Center for Journalists and University of Toronto.

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Uli Köppen & Miranda Marcus: Approaches In AI Innovation From Two of Europe's Public Broadcasters (Recorded at Online News Association's Onward 2023) Oct 05, 2023

Uli Köppen, Head of AI + Automation Lab and Co-Lead of BR Data at Germany's Public Broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), and Miranda Marcus, Head of BBC News Labs, join Nikita Roy for a conversation on how AI has been a part of their newsrooms. This episode is a recording of the virtual panel at the Online News Association's ONWARD-2023 event on September 28, 2023.

Uli Köppen is Head of the AI + Automation Lab and Co-Lead of the investigative data team BR Data at Germany's Public Broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk. In this role, she's working with interdisciplinary teams of journalists, coders, and product developers. She and her teams are investigating AI and automation for algorithmic accountability reporting, as well as using this technology for data-driven journalistic products. The teams are building on the lab experience to form strategy for using AI and automation for journalism. As a Nieman Fellow 2019, she spent an academic year at Harvard and MIT, and she was part of the Online News Association's Women's Leadership Accelerator 2022. Together with her colleagues, she has won many national and international awards.

Miranda leads BBC News Labs, an interdisciplinary innovation team that combines software engineering and journalism. The team works collaboratively across BBC News, World Service, and BBC Product to explore topics from automation in authoring, addressing news avoidance and data-driven newsgathering. They develop and test prototypes with journalists and audiences to inform long-term strategy and the production of innovative content in the short term. Miranda’s background combines design, AI research, data policy, digital innovation, and social science.

Tune into this episode to hear about how two of Europe’s most prominent public broadcasters have been integrating AI.

🔔 Introducing the Generative AI for Media Professionals Masterclass.

A live cohort based coursed taught jointly by Jeremy Caplan and Nikita Roy.

Sign up to be the first when course registration goes live.

Jeremy Caplan is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Craig Newmark School of Graduate Journalism at the City University of New York and the founder of Wondertools.

Nikita Roy is a data scientist, journalist and media entrepreneur. She hosts the Newsroom Robots podcast and has taught AI literacy workshops for the Craig Newmark School of Graduate Journalism at the City University of New York, International Center for Journalists and University of Toronto.

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Nick Diakopoulos: The Potential of Fine-Tuning Large Language Models on Newsroom Data Sep 28, 2023

Nick Diakopoulos, Communication Studies and Computer Science Professor at Northwestern University joins Nikita Roy to discuss the opportunities fine-tuning Large Language Models offer for news organizations, and the impact of generative AI on news production and the broader information ecosystem.

Nick directs the Computational Journalism Lab and is Director of Graduate Studies for the Technology and Social Behavior doctoral program. He's also the author of the award-winning book "Automating the News: How Algorithms are Rewriting the Media," published by Harvard University Press. His research focuses on computational journalism, including automation and algorithms in news production and algorithmic accountability and transparency.

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Francesco Marconi: Opportunities and Challenges of Large Language Models in Journalism Sep 20, 2023

Francesco Marconi, the co-founder and CEO of AppliedXL, joins Nikita Roy to discuss the opportunities and challenges that Large Language Models present to the news industry, emphasizing the need for collaboration between tech companies and newsrooms. Francesco also covers copyright and data access challenges and proposes long-term business model innovations to support news organizations and the AI sector. He also shares how his company AppliedXL uses AI combined with human expertise to detect events in real-time biotech data and generate specialized reporting for STAT News.

Francesco shares his perspective from years of experience leading AI initiatives at major news organizations. He served as the R&D Chief at The Wall Street Journal, leading a team of data scientists and computational journalists in developing AI-driven newsroom tools. Before that, he managed AI strategy at the Associated Press and co-led their content automation and artificial intelligence efforts. Francesco has been an affiliate researcher at the MIT Media Lab and a Tow Fellow at Columbia University. His work and ideas have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Politico, Forbes, and the World Economic Forum. His book, "Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism," was published by Columbia University Press in 2020.

On Tuesday, he testified before the UK Parliament's Communications and Digital Committee as an AI expert on Large Language Models. The committee held evidence sessions exploring the benefits of LLMs to the UK economy, their immediate risks, potential catastrophic impacts, and the broader challenges posed by this technology.

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Chris Dinn: How a Toronto News Startup Developed an AI Chatbot to Analyze & Report on Municipal Budgets Sep 14, 2023

Chris Dinn joins Nikita Roy to talk about building AI bots for his Toronto news startup, Torontoverse. Chris also explores the Online News Act's effects in Canada and AI's potential impact on the news industry.

Chris is the Emmy award-winning founder and publisher of Torontoverse, a Toronto-based digital news startup harnessing cutting-edge technology for local news delivery. He earned his Emmy in Technology and Engineering for his contributions at mDialog, an innovator in integrating live video streams with advertisements, later acquired by Google.

At 19, Chris entered the media realm, selling ads for his college newspaper. His zeal for innovation guided him to mDialog, where he was instrumental in reshaping the video ad landscape. Following its acquisition by Google, Chris dedicated six years as a software engineer focusing on publisher ads. In 2022, he launched his publishing venture, torontoverse.com.

Referenced in the episode:

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Mark Hansen: How Generative AI Can Help With Data Journalism Sep 07, 2023

Mark Hansen joins Nikita Roy to discuss how generative AI can enhance data journalism, particularly by accelerating coding tasks. The discussion also addresses bias and privacy concerns associated with AI models.

Mark is the East Coast Director of The Brown Institute for Media Innovation, a collaborative initiative between Columbia Journalism School and Stanford's School of Engineering.

Mark began his tenure at Columbia Journalism School over a decade ago, serving as a Professor and teaching computational and data journalism courses.

An investigation in one of his classes examining the bot economy behind the sale of fake followers on Twitter garnered significant attention.

It became a front-page story in the New York Times and was part of a package of stories that secured the 2019 Polk Award for National Reporting. Additionally, it was shortlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

Mark Hansen earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Davis.

Referenced:

Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott

Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein

Thoughts or questions? You can reach ushere.

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Liam Andrew: Building a Data Infrastructure for AI Innovation at The Texas Tribune Aug 31, 2023

Liam Andrew, the Chief Product Officer at The Texas Tribune joins Nikita Roy to discuss how they built a data warehouse and analytics hub to provide transparency around key metrics for their newsroom. Liam also shares how The Tribune has implemented tools like automatic content tagging and content recommendations using AI.

In his role at the Tribune, Liam leads the newsroom's software strategy and operations, and oversees the engineering, design, and analytics teams. He joined the Tribune in 2015 as a developer, bringing a background in software engineering, product strategy, and user experience design from media startups and academic research labs.

Tune in to hear how a non profit newsroom in the United States has been leading in AI adoption.

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Uli Köppen: Algorithmic Accountability, Generative AI and Automation in Journalism at Germany's Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting) Aug 23, 2023

Uli Köppen, head of the AI + Automation Lab at German Public Broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, joins Nikita Roy to discuss how BR's newsroom has integrated AI across its entire news cycle. Uli shares her team's work on algorithmic accountability, AI strategy, generative AI experiments, and their experience integrating AI in the newsroom.

Uli also co-leads BR Data, the newsroom's investigative data team. The award-winning team at BR Data is pioneering the future of AI in journalism, drawing upon the experience of journalists, coders, and product developers to specialize in investigative data stories, interactive storytelling, and experimentation with AI.

In 2019, she spent a year at Harvard and MIT as a Nieman Fellow, focusing on algorithmic accountability, machine bias, and automation in journalism. She also participated in the Online News Association's Women's Leadership Accelerator in 2022.

Tune in to learn about advanced AI-driven media from one of Europe's leading voices in the field.

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Jeremy Caplan: Exploring the Landscape of AI Tools to Boost Productivity Aug 17, 2023

Jeremy Caplan joins Nikita Roy to discuss the evolving landscape of AI tools by analyzing their use cases, addressing the challenges they present, and offering tips for enhancing productivity through strategic AI adoption

Jeremy Caplan is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He also leads the school's Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program — a 100-day online curriculum that guides independent journalists to build new ventures.

Before transitioning to academia, Jeremy was a Time Magazine reporter writing about digital innovation. He is also the person behind Wonder Tools, a weekly newsletter that zeros in on the most useful digital tools to boost productivity. He studied public policy at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and subsequently earned an MS in Journalism as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University and an MBA as a Wiegers Fellow at Columbia University.He is a violinist who formerly served as the Concertmaster of the International Symphony Orchestra in Israel.

Tools discussed in this episode:

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Scott Brodbeck: Early Experiments with Generative AI in Local News & Lessons Learned Aug 09, 2023

Scott Brodbeck joins Nikita Roy to discuss his experiments using generative AI in his local newsroom, from creating completely AI-generated newsletters and AI-generated videos to ad copy and back-office support. He also shares his views for other small newsrooms looking to experiment with AI.

Scott is the founder and CEO of Local News Now, which owns and operates three hyperlocal news websites in the United States, covering the Northern Virginia region. A former TV news writer and producer, Scott was also a founding board member of the Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION).

Tune in to hear about Scott’s early experiments with generative AI in his newsroom.

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Elite Truong: From The Washington Post to American Press Institute, Leading AI Innovation in Newsrooms (Part Two) Aug 03, 2023

In the second part of this episode with Elite Truong, she shares her work leading AI products like Metrics for News and Source Matters at the American Press Institute for local newsrooms.

She shares how AI can help local news and her advice for product managers looking to incorporate emerging tech, like generative AI.

Elite is the Vice President of Product Strategy at the American Press Institute. Formerly, she was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at The Washington Post. In the first part of the episode, she discussed her experience working on emerging technologies.

Before joining The Post, Elite spent four years at Vox Media, three as the product manager for off-platform storytelling, primarily negotiating with tech platforms to create user experiences that benefited news consumers. She serves as the Board Secretary for the News Product Alliance and is on the advisory board for Democracy Day.

Tune in for the second part of this episode with Elite and hear about her current work at The American Press Institute.

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

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Elite Truong: From The Washington Post to American Press Institute, Leading AI Innovation in Newsrooms (Part One) Aug 02, 2023

Elite Truong joins Nikita Roy to delve into her journey of leading AI products, first at The Washington Post and now at the American Press Institute, in a special two-part episode.

In part one, Elite shares insights from her work on Heliograf, The Washington Post's robot reporter that debuted in 2016. She discusses the evolution of the product under her leadership and explores the potential of computer vision in assisting journalists, particularly when covering traumatic events. Join us for part two of this episode, where we discuss her current role at the American Press Institute and her perspective on the potential applications of generative AI in newsrooms.

Elite is the Vice President of Product Strategy at the American Press Institute, where she manages data products like Metrics for News and Source Matters that empower local newsrooms to make strategic decisions. Formerly, she was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at The Washington Post, where she led the newsroom R & D team to capture younger and more diverse audiences by creating projects driven by emerging technologies, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, 3D, and augmented reality. Before joining The Post, Elite spent four years at Vox Media, three as the product manager for off-platform storytelling, primarily negotiating with tech platforms to create user experiences that benefited news consumers.

She serves as the Board Secretary for the News Product Alliance and is on the advisory board for Democracy Day.

Don't miss out, as Elite recounts her initial experiences with AI product development at The Washington Post in this episode.

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

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Aimee Rinehart: How AI is Transforming News Production at The Associated Press and Beyond Jul 27, 2023

Aimee Rinehart, the Senior Product Manager of AI Strategy for The Associated Press joins Nikita Roy to discuss how AP is using AI and the tools being built as part of AP’s Local News AI Initiative. Aimee shares AP's current approach of learning and experimentation with generative AI through projects around translation, image identification and search.

Before joining AP, Aimee served as the Deputy Director of First Draft's New York Bureau, where she helped journalists and newsrooms navigate the mis- and disinformation during the 2018 and 2020 U.S. election cycles. In 2018, she managed Comprova, a project to monitor and analyze misinformation and disinformation around the 2018 Brazilian elections. Aimee started working online in 1996 and was a digital originator at The New York Times, and returned to print briefly as an editor at the Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels.

Tune in to hear how one of the largest news organizations is navigating the adoption of AI and automation technologies while also assisting local newsrooms.

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Mark Briggs: Creating an AI-Ready Newsroom Culture Jul 20, 2023

Mark Briggs joins Nikita Roy to discuss the core components necessary for building an AI-ready newsroom culture. Mark also shares the findings of a recent survey on audience perceptions of using AI in news.

Mark is the author of the widely-used book 'Journalism Next,' now in its fourth edition and used in colleges across the United States. He was a leadership and change management professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for six years. He will now teach a course on entrepreneurial journalism at the University of Washington in the fall. Mark has spent the past two decades championing digital transformation and innovation in the world of news.

Tune in to hear Mark’s insights on how to prepare your newsroom for the AI revolution.

Referenced in the episode:

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

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Dalia Hashim: Building an Ethical AI Strategy & Tips for Engaging with AI Vendors Jul 12, 2023

Dalia Hashim joins Nikita Roy to unpack the nuances of incorporating AI into journalism. She provides critical questions to consider when engaging with AI vendors, elaborating on facets of clear communication, comprehension of tool limitations, and the importance of oversight. Dalia also delves into the ethical quandaries with AI use in newsrooms, particularly around potential job displacement. She offers insights on building an ethical AI strategy. Dalia also shares the future plans of Partnership on AI to help newsrooms.

Dalia Hashim is the Program and Research Lead for AI and Media Integrity at Partnership on AI. She focuses on the intersection of AI and local news and works extensively on understanding how AI policies and interventions can minimize the harmful impact of AI in various industries.

Before this role, Dalia made significant strides in AI policy development in the Ontario Government. As a founding member of their AI policy team, she helped write and pass Canada’s first digital law. Most recently, she served as a Senior Policy Advisor to Ontario’s Chief Digital and Data Officer, providing key insights on Ontario’s digital and data strategies.

Referenced in the episode:

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

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Santiago Lyon: How Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative is fostering digital provenance Jul 05, 2023

Santiago Lyon joins Nikita Roy to discuss how Adobe's Content Authenticity Initiative is taking an active role in combating misinformation through digital content provenance. He discusses how Adobe addresses ethical issues and brings transparency to its AI-enabled products, like the new generative fill feature in Adobe Photoshop. He also touches upon the transformative impact of generative AI on the roles of creatives.

Santiago Lyon is the Head of Advocacy and Education for the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative. He has more than 35 years of experience in photography as an award-winning photojournalist, photo editor, media executive, and educator. As a photographer for Reuters and The Associated Press, he won multiple photojournalism awards for his coverage of conflicts around the globe. In 2003 he was a Nieman Fellow in journalism at Harvard University before being named Director of Photography at The Associated Press, a position he held until 2016. Under his direction, the AP won three Pulitzer Prizes for photography and multiple other major photojournalism awards worldwide. He was Chair of the Jury for the 2013 World Press Photo contest. Lyon serves on the boards of directors of the Eddie Adams Workshop and the VII Foundation. He also teaches regularly at the International Center of Photography in New York.

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

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Gregory Gondwe: Uncovering Stereotypes in Generative AI Models and How Journalists in sub-Saharan Africa Use ChatGPT Jun 28, 2023

Dr. Gregory Gondwe joins Nikita Roy to discuss the embedded stereotypes and biases in Generative AI models that put the Global South at a disadvantage. He also shares his findings on how journalists in sub-Saharan Africa leverage ChatGPT, with insights derived from his recently published journal article, "CHATGPT and the Global South: how are journalists in sub-Saharan Africa engaging with generative AI?"

Dr. Gregory Gondwe is an Assistant Professor of Journalism Studies at California State University, San Bernardino, and a Rebooting Social Media Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Centre for Internet and Society

He studies emerging media trends and their implications on society, particularly in Africa. His current projects include how people in sub-Saharan Africa use social media — particularly how individuals orchestrate online communities, outsmart government censorship and surveillance, and navigate through biased social media algorithms. His other works include cross-national studies on mis/disinformation in sub-Saharan Africa related to gender, geolocation, age, and media literacy.

Dr. Gondwe’s research works have appeared in various peer-reviewed journals, including Digital Journalism, International Journal of Communication, Journalism Practice, Journalism Studies, International Communication Gazette, and African Journalism Studies.

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Ryan Restivo: Inside the Product Life Cycle of Building an AI-Powered SEO Tool Jun 21, 2023

Ryan Restivo joins host Nikita Roy to discuss the product life cycle of building a generative AI product. As a Reynold’s Journalism Institute (RJI) fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism, Ryan developed YESEO. This free SEO slack tool uses Natural Language Processing and Generative AI to help newsrooms with SEO best practices. Since its launch in March, over 160 newsrooms have adopted the tool.

Besides his work on YESEO, Ryan holds the Director of Product position at Newsday. He has more than a decade of industry experience in digital media.

In this episode, we hear about Ryan’s journey building the YESEO app and explore the unique challenges and opportunities of building generative AI tools

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Jay Allred: How a Local Newsroom in Ohio Uses AI to Automate Sports Reporting Jun 14, 2023

Jay Allred joins host Nikita Roy to share how his newsroom uses artificial intelligence to automatically generate sports content by converting data into news articles.

Jay Allred is the CEO of Source Media Properties, a nationally recognized local news organization serving nearly half a million readers in Ohio in the United States. The Source newsrooms have become known for their tightly focused local coverage, entrepreneurial culture, and national leadership in audience engagement, revenue generation, and solutions journalism.

Jay is also the co-founder of Lede AI, an artificial intelligence startup developed inside Source Media’s newsroom. Lede AI builds reliable, easy-to-use automation tools for newsrooms informed by the needs of readers, journalists, and communities.

Jay serves as a board member of LION Publishers and was a 2022 Sulzberger Fellow at the Columbia Journalism School, where his project focused on the development of easy-to-use SAAS tools for local newsrooms around the globe.

On today’s episode, Jay highlights his team’s journey building Lede AI, how his newsroom is carefully experimenting with generative AI, and discusses the future of the local news landscape.

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David Cohn: Copyright Challenges & Audience Engagement in AI-Era Newsrooms Jun 07, 2023

David Cohn, the co-founder of Subtext joins host Nikita Roy in this episode to discuss the recent doomsday buzz surrounding AI, copyright challenges and how generative AI can change the way news publishers interact with their audiences.

Over the past two decades David has worked at the intersection of technology and journalism, with a focus on new products, business models, audience growth, customer experience and incubating new companies. He helped pioneer crowdfunding at Spot.Us, explored mobile first news at Circa and led the charge into social video at AJ+. Today he is a co-founder of Subtext, a platform that lets news organizations, reporters and content creators text with their audience to increase audience engagement, develop new revenue or increase subscriber retention.

Tune in to hear David’s perspective on the potential of AI to reshape the relationship between news publishers and their audience.

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

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Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY Workshop: Empowering News Entrepreneurs with Generative AI May 31, 2023

This episode features a workshop held by Newsroom Robots’ host Nikita Roy at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY for the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program. Focusing on the practical applications of generative AI tools, she explores how these advanced technologies can empower news entrepreneurs to streamline their workflows and shares numerous use cases for their implementation in the newsroom.

Mentioned in this episode:

AI tools discussed:

ChatGPT: Text generation tool by OpenAI.
Writer: Another text generation tool geared towards businesses with a focus on privacy and a competitor to ChatGPT
Lumen5: Converts text to video.
Eleven Labs: Text to speech voice generator.
MidJourney: AI image generator.
Poe MidJourney Prompt Bot: AI chatbot app to help you create MidJourney prompts
DALL-E: Generates images from text powered by OpenAI.
Bing Image Creator: Bing’s AI image generator based on text powered by OpenAI
Zapier: No-code automation tool that connects apps to create automated workflows.

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

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Ryan Serpico: Building Hearst Newspapers’ First Generative AI Tool May 24, 2023

In today’s episode, Ryan Serpico joins host Nikita Roy to discuss how he built the first generative AI tool that is helping power local newsrooms across Hearst Newspapers.

Ryan is Hearst Newspapers first AI and Automation Engineer, where he takes advantage of the latest developments in generative AI to empower journalists in Hearst Newspapers' local newsrooms across the country. Prior to moving into this role, he spent three years at the San Antonio Express-News, first as a digital producer and then as a graphics reporter. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 2018. You can follow him on mastodon (https://mastodon.social/@ryan_serpico) and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ryan_serpico).

We also discuss Ryan’s transition from the editorial side of the newsroom to the technical side, how he views privacy concerns regarding generative AI and his advice for journalists looking to get more technical with AI.

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bill Adair: AI-Generated Misinformation & The Future of Fact-Checking May 17, 2023

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Adair, the creator of PolitiFact and the co-founder of the International Fact-Checking Network joins host Nikita Roy to discuss the current state of misinformation in the age of generative AI and the role of journalism in combating it.

Bill is a Knight Professor of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, where he researches new ways to expand fact-checking and combat misinformation. He is currently working on a book about lying in politics.

We discuss the potential threats and opportunities that generative AI brings to the industry, the cutting-edge work at the Duke Reporters Lab using generative AI, and the future of automated fact-checking.

Tune in to hear Bill's optimistic outlook on leveraging AI to safeguard our information ecosystem.

Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim O’Rourke: How Hearst Newspapers DevHub Builds Tools to Empower Their Local Newsrooms May 10, 2023

In this episode, Tim O'Rourke, the Vice President for Content Strategy at Hearst Newspapers, shares his experience leading the group's DevHub editorial engineering and content strategy team that partners with HNP's local newsrooms on innovative projects and growth strategies. Hearst Newspapers produces 24 daily and 52 weekly publications across the United States.

Previously, Tim was the director of product and strategy for The San Francisco Chronicle. He supervised the newsroom's product, website+app, multimedia, and audio staff; directed data-driven coverage; and oversaw the development of interactive projects and journalistic tools for Hearst Newspapers. His former roles include The Chronicle's managing editor, digital; assistant managing editor, and the executive producer of SFChronicle.com. He came to The Chronicle as the senior news editor, responsible for the print front page and news operations. He also served as the night-breaking news editor and the department head for the copy and wire desks. He developed the yearlong Chronicle Covers front-page archive project and wrote the occasional craft beer story for the Food+Wine department.

Before joining The Chronicle in 2013, O'Rourke worked as an editor and writer at the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Santa Barbara News-Press, Hartford Courant, and Diablo Magazine.

Join us as Tim delves into how Hearst is building their AI strategy in the age of generative AI, looking at the impact of AI-driven chatbots, the opportunities and hurdles in creating AI-powered tools, and Hearst's foray into VR and news gamification.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charlie Beckett: Fostering AI Literacy in Newsrooms and Navigating the Risks of Generative AI May 03, 2023

In this episode, we explore the crucial considerations when developing an AI strategy and the potential risks of generative AI in the newsroom with Charlie Beckett, Director of the JournalismAI project at Polis – the international journalism think tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science(LSE). He is also a professor at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications. He was previously the director of LSE's Truth, Trust, and Technology Commission, which reported on the misinformation crisis in 2018.

Charlie is the author of SuperMedia: Saving Journalism So It Can Save The World (Blackwell, 2008) and WikiLeaks: News In The Networked Era (Polity, 2012).

Before LSE, Charlie was an award-winning journalist at LWT, BBC, and ITN, beginning his career at the South London Press and later a program editor at Channel 4 News.

JournalismAI, a project of Polis supported by the Google News Initiative, is a global initiative committed to helping news organizations use artificial intelligence responsibly.

By fostering innovation and capacity-building, JournalismAI aims to make the potential of AI more accessible and to address inequalities in the global news media related to AI. Through various programs, JournalismAI unites journalists and media professionals to discuss and explore AI, encouraging debates on AI's editorial, ethical, and financial implications on journalism.

Join us as Charlie provides his valuable insights on the significance of AI literacy for journalists, the crucial questions to consider when developing an AI strategy for news organizations, the risks and potential limitations of generative AI, and the influence of AI-powered chatbots on search engine traffic.

Be a part of the conversation on AI in journalism! Send us your questions here.

Here’s a list of helpful resources concerning today’s episode:

JournalismAI Case Studies
JournalismAI Starter Pack
JournalismAI Discovery Course (Applications currently open)
JournalismAI Survey Report (2019)
Partnership on AI's Database of AI Tools for Local Newsroom

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Damon Kiesow: Approaching AI in Journalism with a Human-Centered Design Mindset Apr 26, 2023

How can journalists adopt a human-centered design mindset when building AI-driven products, and what skills will the next generation of journalists need to succeed in an AI-powered newsroom?

Today we’re joined by Damon Kiesow, a digital media pioneer specializing in aligning community information needs and business strategies to support sustainable local journalism.

Damon shares his expertise as a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, author of the first textbook in News Product Management, and co-founder of the International News Product Alliance. He is also the co-founder of the summer pop-up newsroom, the Missouri Information Corps, and the creator of an audience and product-focused diversity internship program in partnership with the Institute of Nonprofit News.

Before joining Mizzou, Damon served as director of Product for McClatchy, where he created the company’s first Product Design and User Experience Research teams. Over at The Boston Globe, as a senior product manager, he helped guide the publication’s mobile strategy. In Nashua, New Hampshire, he served as the managing editor/online at The Telegraph, where he helped the Newsroom pursue a digital-first local news strategy — launching the newspaper’s first mobile app and video journalism efforts.

In this episode, we get Damon’s views on how newsrooms can approach AI, delve into the importance of a human-centered design mindset when incorporating AI into newsrooms, and discuss the essential skills journalism students must develop to succeed in this evolving landscape.

Be a part of the conversation on AI in journalism! Send us your questions here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Amditis: Harnessing the Power of ChatGPT for Local Newsrooms Apr 19, 2023

In this episode, we explore the potential of ChatGPT for local newsrooms with Joe Amditis, author of Beginner's Prompt Handbook: ChatGPT for Local News Publishers. Joe is the Assistant Director of Products and Events at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, an Adjunct Professor at the School of Communication and Media, and the producer and host of the WTF Just Happened Today podcast.

Joe, a veteran of the NJ Army National Guard, was deployed to Iraq in 2008 and his unit was activated to help with Hurricane Irene relief efforts in 2011. He earned a BA in political science and criminal justice from Rutgers in 2013 and an MA in engaged journalism from the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in 2016. He was co-founder and director of operations of Muckgers, an award-winning, student-focused investigative news outlet, until 2014.

Joe has also coordinated several collaborative reporting projects, including Democracy Day, a nationwide reporting collaborative involving 300+ newsrooms across the United States.

We explore the exciting world of ChatGPT and its potential to revolutionize local journalism, discussing the transformative power of generative AI, ethical considerations, prompt engineering, and the future of local newsrooms in the age of AI.

Joe can be reached at amditisj@montclair.edu and on Twitter at @jsamditis.

Here’s a list of helpful resources concerning today’s episode:

Beginner's Prompt Handbook: ChatGPT for Local News Publishers (Center for Cooperative Media) - Discover Joe's comprehensive guide to using ChatGPT in local newsrooms.
Giant List of Useful Tools and Websites (Center for Cooperative Media) - A treasure trove of tools and resources for newsroom operations.
Template: ChatGPT Usage and Newsroom Ethics Policy (Center for Cooperative Media) - This template facilitates transparency in newsrooms' ethics policies regarding the use and disclosure of generative AI.
Trusting News Newsletter (Trusting News) - Stay informed about building trust in journalism with this insightful newsletter.
Journalism AI Starter Pack (LSE) - Get started with AI in journalism with this comprehensive resource from the London School of Economics.

Be a part of the conversation on AI in journalism! Send us your questions here

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Matt Karolian: AI Efforts at The Boston Globe and Views on the AI Revolution Apr 12, 2023

As AI technology rapidly evolves, how will it transform journalism and newsrooms? In our first episode, we delve into the intersection of AI and journalism with our guest, Matt Karolian, General Manager of Boston.com and Platforms at the Boston Globe.

In 2017, Matt spent a year at Harvard and MIT as a Nieman Fellow studying how AI and automation might impact the future of news, media, and publishing.

He teaches Audience Engagement: Journalism in the Age of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple at the Harvard Extension School.

Join us for this insightful conversation as Matt shares his experience leading the AI efforts at The Boston Globe. He provides a unique perspective on how the news industry can adapt, innovate, and flourish in the age of AI.

We explore the implications of generative AI on journalism, tackle concerns related to AI disclosure, trust, accuracy, and bias, and examine the impact of AI-powered search engines on search traffic for publishers.

Be a part of the conversation on AI in journalism! Send us your questions here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.