The hype online for OpenAI’s latest AI-driven chat tool is almost insufferable. Admittedly, ChatGPT is impressive and you should go play with it if you haven’t already. You can prompt the machine with requests like “Write three newsworthy headlines for this article”, or “Summarize this abstract without the scientific jargon” and it will probably provide a sensibly written response. Many in my feeds seem amazed with the quality of the text generated by the AI. Some even think it could be the death-knell of the college essay. The technology is poised to disrupt many aspects of media and communication industries by making content — not only text, but also visual imagery — easier to create.
We’re still early in the hype cycle, but in the next year I expect the field of journalism to soberly flesh out how such new tools might actually be productive. No, they’re not going to write ready-to-publish articles for you, despite the misleading headlines. But there are plenty of ways they might save bits of time on various newsroom production tasks. Journalists need to test the possibilities and boundaries of the technology and set to work exploring how these powertools can be adapted for their needs. Lots of experimentation is needed with writing prompts to get the most out of the AI. On top of that, serious ethical thinking is needed to consider when and how to use the technology responsibly.
These AI tools can already do a lot. For instance, they can rewrite text to simplify it for different audiences, summarize documents, write potential headlines, and brainstorm angles or potential directions for reporting. In data journalism they can be used to classify documents or extract data (with varying degrees of success), or to generate short snippets of text to render descriptions based on structured data. What else could be done with these tools?
There are of course limitations, including bias, nonsense text, and a range of other concerns. For news, the biggest issue is that the tools hallucinate with confidence, making them a ready tool for disinformation production. Any text these tools output still needs to be checked for accuracy and so may be ill-suited to specific tasks. It’s probably better to think of these tools as internal newsroom tools, making suggestions to reporters and editors rather than generating text that will be directly published. Research is blazing ahead to make future versions of the technology better able to output factually accurate text. And news organizations could also invest more in R&D to fine-tune and further adapt the models to be better aligned to journalistic needs. In the meantime, fact-checking should be a growth center for news organizations.
Like any other AI technology, it’s not a button to press to fix what ails news media. But I’m fundamentally optimistic about what might be done with these AI tools when used in responsible ways by journalists.
Nicholas Diakopoulos is an associate professor of communication studies and computer science at Northwestern University.
The hype online for OpenAI’s latest AI-driven chat tool is almost insufferable. Admittedly, ChatGPT is impressive and you should go play with it if you haven’t already. You can prompt the machine with requests like “Write three newsworthy headlines for this article”, or “Summarize this abstract without the scientific jargon” and it will probably provide a sensibly written response. Many in my feeds seem amazed with the quality of the text generated by the AI. Some even think it could be the death-knell of the college essay. The technology is poised to disrupt many aspects of media and communication industries by making content — not only text, but also visual imagery — easier to create.
We’re still early in the hype cycle, but in the next year I expect the field of journalism to soberly flesh out how such new tools might actually be productive. No, they’re not going to write ready-to-publish articles for you, despite the misleading headlines. But there are plenty of ways they might save bits of time on various newsroom production tasks. Journalists need to test the possibilities and boundaries of the technology and set to work exploring how these powertools can be adapted for their needs. Lots of experimentation is needed with writing prompts to get the most out of the AI. On top of that, serious ethical thinking is needed to consider when and how to use the technology responsibly.
These AI tools can already do a lot. For instance, they can rewrite text to simplify it for different audiences, summarize documents, write potential headlines, and brainstorm angles or potential directions for reporting. In data journalism they can be used to classify documents or extract data (with varying degrees of success), or to generate short snippets of text to render descriptions based on structured data. What else could be done with these tools?
There are of course limitations, including bias, nonsense text, and a range of other concerns. For news, the biggest issue is that the tools hallucinate with confidence, making them a ready tool for disinformation production. Any text these tools output still needs to be checked for accuracy and so may be ill-suited to specific tasks. It’s probably better to think of these tools as internal newsroom tools, making suggestions to reporters and editors rather than generating text that will be directly published. Research is blazing ahead to make future versions of the technology better able to output factually accurate text. And news organizations could also invest more in R&D to fine-tune and further adapt the models to be better aligned to journalistic needs. In the meantime, fact-checking should be a growth center for news organizations.
Like any other AI technology, it’s not a button to press to fix what ails news media. But I’m fundamentally optimistic about what might be done with these AI tools when used in responsible ways by journalists.
Nicholas Diakopoulos is an associate professor of communication studies and computer science at Northwestern University.
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
James Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
AX Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Nik Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism