Newsroom Robots cover image

Newsroom Robots

Latest episodes

undefined
Oct 13, 2023 • 43min

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)

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.
undefined
Oct 5, 2023 • 42min

Uli Köppen & Miranda Marcus: Approaches In AI Innovation From Two of Europe's Public Broadcasters (Recorded at Online News Association's Onward 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
undefined
Sep 28, 2023 • 40min

Nick Diakopoulos: The Potential of Fine-Tuning Large Language Models on Newsroom Data

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.
undefined
Sep 20, 2023 • 50min

Francesco Marconi: Opportunities and Challenges of Large Language Models in Journalism

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.
undefined
Sep 14, 2023 • 56min

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

Chris Dinn, founder of Torontoverse, talks about developing an AI chatbot to analyze and report on municipal budgets. The podcast covers topics like the effects of the Online News Act in Canada, AI's impact on the news industry, innovative approaches to local news delivery, innovative monetization strategies for news products, using AI to analyze municipal budgets, understanding GitHub and Slack for code development and content creation, the role of AI in journalism, the future of their work in Toronto, and exploring AI chatbots and the value of high-quality content.
undefined
Sep 7, 2023 • 44min

Mark Hansen: How Generative AI Can Help With Data Journalism

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 StarSeeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. ScottData Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren KleinThoughts or questions? You can reach us here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
undefined
Aug 31, 2023 • 40min

Liam Andrew: Building a Data Infrastructure for AI Innovation at The Texas Tribune

Liam Andrew, Chief Product Officer at The Texas Tribune, discusses building a data warehouse and implementing tools like automatic content tagging and content recommendations using AI. The podcast explores the importance of data in AI innovation and the opportunities it presents for nonprofit newsrooms. It also delves into entity recognition, AI's benefits for journalists in the newsroom, and the impact of AI on journalism and funding opportunities.
undefined
Aug 23, 2023 • 40min

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

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
undefined
Aug 17, 2023 • 44min

Jeremy Caplan: Exploring the Landscape of AI Tools to Boost Productivity

Jeremy Caplan, Director of Teaching and Learning at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, discusses the evolving landscape of AI tools. Topics include AI implementation in journalism, strategies for avoiding hallucination and maintaining control, evaluating factors for AI tools, AI tools for video editing and productivity, and embracing learning and experimentation in the AI revolution.
undefined
Aug 9, 2023 • 33min

Scott Brodbeck: Early Experiments with Generative AI in Local News & Lessons Learned

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

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode