I contributed to NiemanLab’s 2023 series of predictions on the future of journalism.
Fake and misleading stories might still circulate because bad actors would have the resources to engineer ways around the automated tools. Reporters, on the other hand, might find their work blocked as investigations and enterprise reporting lack the precedent in the AI’s model to appear “true.”
But it doesn’t need to be that way.
Journalists can engage with the technologists who are working in this space to improve — and direct — their work. As an industry we can wrestle with the ethics of letting machines audit and improve our reporting. We can be open to the disruptive power of artificial intelligence at all points in our value chain, instead of closing ourselves off and assuming the future will look just like today.