If you had told Ed Madison two years ago that you were developing artificial intelligence tools for journalists, he “would have looked the other way.”
But that was before Madison, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, went to an education conference in Boston. There, he came across a company demonstrating an AI mentor that teaches students how to write essays.
With the company’s help, he created a prototype of an AI tool that teaches journalism students how to write news articles. The tool, named Murrow.ai after legendary newscaster Edward R. Murrow, has since been used by thousands of students around the world.
As director of the Journalistic Learning Initiative, an Oregon nonprofit, Madison strikes a positive but cautious tone about the use of AI in journalism. However, he is open to using it as a tool to help students stimulate their own creativity and craft better stories. Meanwhile, he expressed concern about the disinformation AI is unleashing on the internet and social media.
As new AI tools create increasingly convincing fakes in text, images, and videos, he advocated for increased media literacy to navigate the brave new world of AI.
OregonNews spoke with Madison to get her perspective on where AI is headed, how to use it responsibly in education, and why media literacy is more important than ever. Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
