The Media Copilot

What's it like to come face-to-face with your own deepfake? Anne-Marie Tomchak knows, and the encounter is captured vividly in her documentary Game Changer: AI and You, which aired recently on Ireland's public broadcaster. It's a powerful moment, and one I would argue every journalist covering AI should experience: the unnerving feeling of seeing your own image and voice co-opted to say or do anything that the programmer desires. It's one thing to hear about a celebrity like Taylor Swift being deepfaked; it's quite another to have it done to you personally. And with the technology becoming so accessible, that becomes a greater possibility every day. On this week's episode of The Media Copilot podcast, Anne-Marie shared the insights she gained by working on the documentary (her second on the subject of AI), zeroing in on AI's growing influence in journalism. We discussed how AI is reshaping the media landscape, from newsroom operations to content creation, and the ethical and legal conundrums emerging from AI-generated content. As the founder of BBC's social media investigative unit, Anne-Marie talks about how this technological shift is different from digital media shakeups of the past. If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe on your favorite platform, check out our channel on YouTube, and leave a review or a star rating. It really does help the show, and it'll ensure we keep bringing you great conversations like this one. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2024

Doing journalism with AI? What even is that? Up until recently, the answer to that question was a small part of the profession, mostly restricted to big publications with deep pockets and a sophisticated data strategy (think: The Washington Post or the AP). But after ChatGPT said hello to the world a year and a half ago, however, "AI-powered news" was suddenly a blank canvas. After the world saw the disastrous results of using the content produced by generative AI without a robust process surrounding the creating, vetting, and publishing of that content, the media world went back to the drawing board: What is this "magical" new technology good for, and what does a newsroom need to do to use it safely and ethically? David Caswell spends most of his days thinking about exactly that. David has been working with machine learning and AI in media for well over a decade, leading product teams at the BBC, Tribune Publishing, and Yahoo. He's now a consultant and researcher focused on AI in newsrooms, and he wrote arguably the definitive guide on the subject last fall in his article "AI and News: What's Next?" This week David joins The Media Copilot podcast to talk about everything that's happened since his article dropped, and how his thinking about AI's role in our media ecosystem has changed. We also explore what he hopes to see come out of The New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI, how reporters should be leveraging generative tools, and why journalists are naturally good prompt engineers. If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe on your favorite platform and leave a review or a star rating. It really does help the show, and it'll ensure we keep bringing you great conversations like this one. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2024

What happens when you teach your AI to churn out believable fictional characters? AImmersive co-founders Max Salamonowicz and Casey McBeath have built a tool for writers and creatives who want to create realistic video game and fiction characters. The tool they've created isn't just a simple character generator. It's an advanced AI system designed to produce believable, complex characters with unique personalities, backstories, and traits. Salamonowicz and McBeath spoke to John Biggs for The Media Copilot podcast. Their insights offer a glimpse into the merging of technology and creativity, and how generative AI is poised to redefine the landscape of narrative arts. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2024

Copyright is one of the biggest issues in AI. Eric Wengrowski, the CEO of Steg.AI explains how digital watermarking can help. It's fair to say the subject of copyright comes up a lot when you're talking about AI. Whether you're talking about a large language model (LLM) like the ones that power ChatGPT, or diffusion models that serve text-to-image creators like Midjourney, these generative systems suck up massive amounts of training data from the open web. This has concerned many content creators and publishers, including The New York Times, which brought its concerns to the courts in late December. While the world waits for the law to catch up to the AI industry, the question remains: can authors, photographers, videographers and anyone else in the business of creating content do anything to ensure they stay connected and in control of the things they create? There might be. What all these issues are circling is the concept of content provenance: ensuring the copyright holder of any piece of content is embedded within the content itself. One way to do that through digital watermarking — essentially creating an "Invisible QR code" that travels with the document, image, or video, even if it's copied and stripped of metadata. Steg.AI is a company that specializes in digital watermarking, and The Media Copilot spoke with its CEO, Eric Wengrowski in our latest podcast. We fully explored the role of watermarking in a world where all kinds of web crawlers are constantly hoovering up data, why it's important to label synthetic content, and the incredibly important question of: can you still detect the watermark of a piece of training data in model output? The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2024

"Just imagine the whole society just crumbling over AI." People in Iceland don't have to imagine it. That quote from Siggi Arnason, CEO of OverTune, is describing the fallout from a viral video that his company's AI-powered technology helped create. The video was a comedy sketch that featured a recreation of a popular deceased Icelandic comedian, Hermann Gunnarsson. After it aired, over 90% of the country ended up seeing it, and in response, the country's parliament is fast-tracking legislation around deepfakes and the use of AI. Another effect of the controversy is that OverTune has gone viral. Arnason spoke to John Biggs on The Media Copilot podcast about the skit and the resulting firestorm. Arnason, a former musician and self-described "lover of cats," is unique in that he never wanted to be an AI influencer. But when his team built Iceland’s first deepfaked political comedy sketch, he knocked over a can of cod. Now his country is wrestling with the concepts of ownership, creativity, and the future of AI.  Join us in New York on February 1! We are planning our first meetup in Manhattan and we’d love to meet you! Sign up to our ⁠Meetup Group⁠ here and we’ll send you the details shortly. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠ Music: ⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2024

When The New York Times filed its landmark lawsuit, accusing OpenAI of violating copyright by training its large language models (LLMs) on its journalism, some savvy observers had been expecting such a move for months. One of those people is Louise Story. Louise is a former Times staffer, spending several years as an investigative journalist before getting involved in strategy and building new formats for the paper (such as live video). She also led content and product strategy for The Wall Street Journal — including its approach to AI — so few people have a better perspective on how newsrooms regard technology platforms. She now offers that perspective as an independent consultant, helping guide media companies on digital strategy and how they can adapt to an AI-mediated future. I spoke to Louise for The Media Copilot podcast. We of course talk about the lawsuit and dissect the stakes for the players involved and the media. I was also excited to get her perspective on the infamous Sports Illustrated debacle and how incidents like it have added to the stigma of generative content. Of course, I couldn’t let her leaving without getting her to share some practical advice on how newsrooms can take their first steps into the world of GenAI. Join us in New York on February 1! We are planning our first meetup in Manhattan and we’d love to meet you! Sign up to our Meetup Group here and we’ll send you the details shortly. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ Music: ⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2024

When ChatGPT showed how easy it was to write an "original" academic paper that could get a passing grade, the need for some kind of AI detector was suddenly starkly clear. The market quickly responded, and GPTZero, created by 23-year-old Edward Tian, was an overnight sensation last spring. College professors now routinely check papers for AI authorship. In the media world, the need for such a tool was perhaps less urgent, since editors tend to have a tighter grip on how copy is produced, and few writers would risk their reputations trying to pass off synthetic articles as their own. That is, until the boondoggle with Sports Illustrated, where articles supplied by a third party appeared to have been written by AI (note: the company that supplied the articles claims they were human-written). The incident got widespread attention, and it underscored the need for AI detection in media, especially when you publish content at scale, from multiple sources. Even if your in-house editorial team is strictly human-driven, freelancers and syndication partners may not have gotten the memo. So do managing editors need to add "copy and paste article into AI detector" to the long list of editors' duties? They can, but another solution may be to build it into existing processes and tools, which is exactly why Copyleaks exists. The company began as a plagiarism detector and now markets itself as an AI detection company. It claims to be able to do detect synthetic text across models, in multiple languages, and in detail (i.e. showing which parts of a document are AI generated, as opposed to a simple Yes/No result). Lee Gaul is the enterprise sales director at Copyleaks, and he's this week's guest on The Media Copilot podcast. Our conversation goes beyond simple AI detection and explores the big-picture issues driving the demand for the service as well as the increased need for human judgment when machines enter the picture. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠ ⁠Follow on X.⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠Apple⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠ Music: ⁠Favorite⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2024

At a time when most newsrooms across the world are considering, studying and, in some cases, experimenting with generative AI, at least one publication has enthusiastically embraced the technology, building it into workflows and publishing "synthetic" content on the regular. BusinessDesk in New Zealand uses ChatGPT and other AI models to augment what it’s serving up to subscribers, using the tech’s generative capabilities to both monitor news events and create content around them almost instantly. After launching AI-powered articles and summaries in the spring, BusinessDesk is going further, using it to summarize lengthy reports and assist in news gathering. Matt Martel, general manager of BusinessDesk parent NZME, spoke to The Media Copilot about why the BusinessDesk newsroom jumped into the realm of generative AI so quickly, how it avoids the pitfalls of the tech without slowing things down, and the ways the company’s organizational structure made it so friendly to integrating GenAI into real-world workflows. You can hear the full version of this PREMIUM episode of The Media Copilot by ⁠becoming a paid subscriber⁠. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. Subscribe to the newsletter. Follow on X. Subscribe to the podcast on: Apple Spotify Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2023

Newsrooms can only get so far with pasting prompts into ChatGPT. Once you want to get more serious with generative AI, a media business should think seriously about running, fine-tuning, and perhaps even building their own large language model (LLM). There are a number of approaches to this, and it's easy enough to download a commercial or open-source model to run on your private cloud, or even your MacBook. But what are the factors to consider when rolling your own AI operation, and how expensive can it get? In this week's conversation, John Biggs talks with Viktor Shpak, lead developer for VisibleMagic, about what it takes to run your own LLM in the privacy of your own office. He also explores the future of AI-generated content and code, pointing out that the rising AI tide will — theoretically — lift all boats. We're grateful we had the chance to probe the mind of an extremely plugged-in developer. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2023

In the year since ChatGPT arrived on the scene, journalism has grappled with the ethics of generative AI. From robot-written articles to the proliferation of “fake” images, the problems the media needs to think through have been bubbling in the background for a long time, but they've been exacerbated by the scale that generative AI makes possible. One person who's spent a lot of time thinking about all the perils and promise that AI brings to journalism is Charlie Beckett. A professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics (LSE), Beckett is the founding director of Polis, the school’s international journalism think tank. He’s currently leading Polis’s Journalism and AI project, which hosts the JournalismAI Festival, starting on December 6. The festival promises to unite dozens of journalists who are innovating and using generative AI in  newsrooms all over the world. It'll take on topics like detecting bias in content, the role AI can play in covering elections, and how small and local newsrooms can leverage the tech to punch above their weight. In talking to Beckett, I was struck by the tone of optimism that emerged in our conversation. Even though we tackled thorny topics like the ethics of generative images in war and the recent generative-content brouhaha involving Sports Illustrated, it's clear his focus is on how this manifestly transformative technology can help the truth that journalists seek shine through. I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I did. You can register for free for the JournalismAI Festival here. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2023