News organizations are fighting for attention. They’re competing against technology companies that are much more adept at personalization. Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook have created addictive products by predicting users’ future behavior and honing in on their preferences. The more data they gather, the more they refine this process. If media organizations want to capture some of that attention, they have to improve how they personalize their audiences’ experiences. Artificial intelligence presents a way to offer hyperlocal, personalized, and niche stories — without putting more pressure on already overloaded reporters.
In June, I participated in a fascinating roundtable at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. It was a gathering of technologists, journalists, academics, and legal scholars discussing the implications of artificial intelligence in the news industry. Many of the questions raised involved whether newsrooms would be hesitant to embrace AI: How can we encourage collaboration between journalists and technologists? How do we change the culture for people to want to do this?
Some reporters may worry about the impact of artificial intelligence on their jobs. They may balk at the idea of an algorithm being able to rapidly write thousands of news stories. But many of the use cases for AI would make reporters’ lives easier and their jobs more fulfilling. For example, the Associated Press worked with firm Automated Insights to increase twelvefold the number of corporate earnings stories it produces. It estimated that it freed up 20 percent of reporters’ time to work on more complex stories. Reuters also produces thousands of automated stories each day, in multiple languages, from corporate and government data.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post used its robot reporter, Heliograf, on Election Day to cover congressional and gubernatorial races. The technology also allows the Post to cover all D.C.-area high school football games every week. BuzzFeed was able to supplement its on-the-ground reporting from last year’s political conventions by deploying a bot that interacted with attendees. These cases show how journalists can benefit from automation helping to expand coverage while freeing reporters up to do higher-level work.
There is evidence that AI may improve the quality of journalism itself. “In the case of automated financial news coverage by AP, the error rate in the copy decreased even as the volume of the output increased more than tenfold,” said Francesco Marconi, who co-leads AP’s automation and artificial intelligence efforts.
Like John Keefe, I expect to see more major scoops next year by reporters using machine learning. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for its yearlong investigation on sexual abuse by doctors. They analyzed more than 100,000 disciplinary documents and other records to find cases that may have involved doctors’ misconduct. They used machine learning to analyze the cases and assigned each case a probability rating, based on keywords, that it was related to sexual abuse.
Local news organizations are essential to their communities, but they struggle to cover them amid layoffs and shrinking newsroom resources. AI could be used to automate some types of local stories, such as crime reports and coverage of school and community board meetings. This would give residents access to more hyperlocal, personalized stories, while freeing up reporters to focus on other projects.
Most newsrooms simply do not have the resources to invest in artificial intelligence. That’s understandable. It’s time consuming, and the payoff may not be immediately apparent. Collaboration will be critical to advance how newsrooms use AI. That could mean a consortium of newsrooms working together on ambitious machine learning projects. Academic institutions have already led much of the research surrounding artificial intelligence, so we could also see more news organizations partnering with universities. However it happens, AI will become increasingly common in newsrooms until it’s seen as an essential part of the reporting process.
Rubina Madan Fillion is the director of audience engagement at The Intercept.
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust