Newsroom Robots

Simon Willison, creator of Datasette, discusses OpenAI's new features and the security risks of large language models. Topics include recent events at OpenAI, concerns about feature rollout and reputational risk, the uncertainty of OpenAI and the evolution of generative AI, OpenAI's dev day conference and new features, challenges with creating chatbots using custom GPT, and exploring the use of GPTs for newsrooms.

Lynn Walsh, Emmy Award-winning journalist with over 15 years of experience, discusses the importance of transparency and guidelines for newsrooms using AI. They highlight the need for trust building, AI literacy, bias identification, ethical integration, and automation in newsrooms.

Dr. Mario R. Garcia, Senior Adviser on News Design and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, discusses how AI revolutionizes news design and offers insights from his research. He explores the potential of generative AI in enhancing human creativity in newsrooms and emphasizes the collaboration between AI and human expertise. The podcast also delves into AI integration in newspaper design, the power and excitement of AI in workshops and personal interactions, teaching journalism with AI, and the usefulness of AI tools in visual journalism work.

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 CollaborationA Live Cohort-Based Course taught by Jeremy Caplan & Nikita RoyJeremy 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.Sign up to be the first to know when course registration opens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeff Sonderman, founder and CEO of Delta Flow Solutions, discusses the transformative potential of generative AI in streamlining business operations. Topics include converting unstructured data from PDFs into hyperlocal news reports, implementing generative AI in consulting, leveraging AI for email assistance and optimizing workflows, and the challenges of implementing technology in the news industry.

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

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

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

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. Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Thoughts or questions? You can reach us here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.