In 2018, you will be scooped by a reporter using artificial intelligence.
Four years ago, ProPublica’s Scott Klein predicted “you will be scooped by a reporter who knows how to program.” And you were.
In the months ahead, some of those journo-programmers — and probably some grad students looking for strong, unique projects — will break big stories using machine learning. These will be important truths and facts invisible to humans alone.
I’m not talking about computer-generated stories about earthquakes, earnings reports, or sports scores. These will be stories on your beat, written by humans who understand how to use machine learning to aid their reporting.
It’s already happening:
Over the past year, conversations around AI and journalism often ventured into worries about artificial intelligence being deployed to replace reporters. But in the new year, we’ll be talking about how often reporters deployed artificial intelligence to land big stories.
John Keefe is a developer in the Quartz Bot Studio.
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete