It didn’t take long for the downsides of a generative AI-empowered newsroom to make themselves obvious, between CNet’s secret chatbot reviews editor last November and Buzzfeed’s subsequent mass layoffs of human staff in favor of AI-generated “content” creators. The specter of being replaced by a “good enough AI” looms large in many a journalist’s mind these days with as many as a third of the nation’s newsrooms expected to shutter by the middle of the decade.

But AI doesn’t have to necessarily be an existential threat to the field. As six research teams showed at NYU Media Lab’s AI & Local News Initiative demo day in late June, the technology may also be the key to foundationally transforming the way local news is gathered and produced.

Now in its second year, the initiative is tasked with helping local news organizations to “harness the power of artificial intelligence to drive success.” It’s backed as part of a larger $3 million grant from the Knight Foundation which is funding four such programs in total in partnership with the Associated Press, Brown Institute’s Local News Lab, NYC Media Lab and the Partnership on AI.

This year’s cohort included a mix of teams from academia and private industry, coming together over the course of the 12-week development course to build “AI applications for local news to empower journalists, support the sustainability of news organizations and provide quality information for local news audiences,” NYU Tandon’s news service reported.

Whether the AI revolution remains friendly to the journalists it’s presumably augmenting remains to be seen, though Macvey isn’t worried. “Most news organizations, especially local news organizations, are so tight on resources and staff that there's more happening out there than they can cover,” he said. “So I think tools like AI and [the automations seen during the demo day] enable the journalists and editorial staff more bandwidth.”

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How AI could help local newsrooms remain afloat in a sea of misinformation

https://www.engadget.com/how-ai-could-help-local-newsrooms-remain-afloat-in-a-sea-of-misinformation-130023064.html