The Media Copilot

Perhaps the people best positioned to thrive in tomorrow’s media ecosystem are today’s journalism students. Learning how generative AI can assist in their work while also learning the fundamentals of the trade means the next generation of reporters will have machines assisting their work from the start. Helping guide this vanguard of robot-enhanced journalists is Thomas Seymat. Thomas is the Editorial Projects and Development Manager for Euronews, and he also teaches at the Journalist Training Center in France, one of the oldest journalism schools in Europe. This fall he’s leading a class on the use of GenAI in reporting, coaching them on how ChatGPT, Midjourney and other tools can make them stronger, more efficient reporters while also establishing where the guardrails are on their use. Our conversation was illuminating — and somewhat reassuring — about the future of journalism and the next generation. Thomas revealed how his students are already using these tools, their thoughts on the ethics of AI, and some “road to Damascus” moments in their journey. On the news brief, John Biggs and I discuss why labeling content as “AI assisted” is practically useless, whether or not Apple’s new AI-ready Macs mean anything, and that the White House executive order on AI might actually be pretty good? That’s up first. Information on the AI class John and I are teaching is here. More to come on that soon. This week's top AI stories for media: The White House executive order on AI Is it misguided? Or actually pretty good? Our take on what it means for media Labeling won't solve AI's problems (Axios) IAC warns regulators generative AI could wreck the web (Axios) Apple mentions AI, finally (CNN) 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

The Media Copilot is a weekly discussion about generative AI and how it's changing media, journalism, and the news. After a news briefing where journalists Pete Pachal and John Biggs discuss the most recent AI headlines relevant to the media, we present a conversation with a new person every week — innovators, media executives, and fascinating people with compelling perspectives on AI. For this week's conversation, we welcome Jeremy Caplan, author of the newsletter Wonder Tools and Director of Teaching and Learning at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. We spoke to Jeremy about not just the tools journalists can use to begin using generative AI in their day-to-day, but also the mentality needed to get the most out of this unprecedented moment in media. If you watch the video version of the podcast, you may notice Jeremy’s video was slightly out of sync with his audio. We tried to fix this in post and failed, but rest assured Jeremy talks just like a normal human when he has a better internet connection. Here are the stories from the news briefing: Nightshade "Poisons" AI models by altering metadata on images (Ars Technica) Twelve Labs shows off AI that can "watch" and interpret videos (The Neuron) An AI designed to clean up Wikipedia citations (Nature) Anthropic is crowd-sourcing an "AI constitution" (Axios) 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

The ethics of generative AI are more complicated than they might seem. Take generative images, like the ones created by DALL-E and Midjourney. Even when legal issues like the licensing of training imagery are addressed (as Adobe Firefly seems to), does that mean it's OK to create an image in the style of a well-known illustrator without their knowledge or approval? And does the prolific use of GenAI images cheapen the entire practice of photo illustration? That was one of many topics I talked about this week with Harry McCracken, Global Technology Editor for Fast Company, and a key member of the publication's internal team exploring generative AI. Harry has been covering tech since the dawn of the internet and has had a front-row seat every innovation in tech since then. Over the past several months he's plunged deep into AI, and the topic features regularly in his newsletter, Plugged In, such as this recent piece on the dawn of "self-aware" software. Harry is also the first guest in what will become a regular feature on The Media Copilot: Friday Conversations, where I chat with journalists, media executives, and interesting people doing interesting things with generative AI and the news. This first conversation is free for everybody, but I plan to make these conversations exclusive to paid subscribers starting next week. If you don’t want to miss any, it might be a good idea to take advantage of that subscribe button below 👇 I hope you find the conversation as stimulating as I did. Look for more insights from fascinating people working at the intersection of media and GenAI in the coming weeks. 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