It was inevitable.
Last week, I was catching up with a casual acquaintance and this question was posed to me.
“Hey, I was reading an article about a newspaper in Ohio that was using AI to write articles,” he said. “Are you guys doing that too?”
The short answer is “no.”
The long answer is:
That newspaper is the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which has a sizable digital readership on Cleveland.com. In February, editor Chris Quinn wrote a provocative “Letter from the Editor” column, criticizing journalism schools for denigrating advances in technology, particularly artificial intelligence, and touting The Plain Dealer’s use of AI to enhance its news reporting.
Nearly every newspaper in America is experimenting with and expanding the use of AI to improve efficiency. Most people draw the line at using generative AI to gather news and create news articles. Quinn unapologetically says it’s time to let AI take over the writing part.
“By removing writing from our reporters’ workloads, we have effectively given them an extra work day each week. They spend that time on the streets, conducting in-person interviews or going out for coffee with sources,” he wrote. That’s where the real stories come from, and we come back with more ideas than we can handle. ”
As you can imagine, members of the journalism community had a lot to say about Quinn’s full-on approach to AI, from his vitriolic posts about X to the thoughtful responses published by Columbia Journalism Review and the American Press Institute.
But then, to his surprise, Quinn’s column went mainstream and was referenced by reporters at the Washington Post, the Guardian, and other national newspapers.
Let me be clear: The Plain Dealer has guardrails in place. AI is not being used in every situation. When AI is used, humans will report, edit the AI’s drafts, and in theory apply good old journalistic standards before hitting the publish button.
But still, is Quinn rushing things too quickly? One journalism educator called him Icarus, the Plain Dealer, flying toward the sun on AI wings.
I asked Mr. Quinn, who I have met and with whom I serve on the board of the Ohio News Media Association, if he was surprised by the response to his column. He politely declined to comment.
What I can say is that The Enquirer is just as aggressive as the rest of the USA TODAY Network, but we’re taking a slightly different approach.
We innovate and experiment. It’s not a question of whether or not to use AI. The world has already answered that question. The question is how.
At The Enquirer, we follow a set of principles that, above all else, state that we take full responsibility for the AI-assisted work we publish. It is a tool for human use and is not a substitute for human judgment.
Our overarching goal is to leverage AI to streamline tedious and time-consuming tasks so journalists can do more journalism. This job involves a lot of tedious work. Transcribe interviews, read long documents, fill out numerous data fields before publishing an article, convert text-based content to video…the list goes on. We are currently deploying AI solutions to assist with many of these tasks.
When you read an Enquirer article online, AI may provide wording suggestions for headlines, article summaries, and bulleted “key takeaways” found in many articles. AI enhancements to our video editing tools make them easier to use and significantly reduce production time. In both cases, humans are in charge and review your work before publishing.
At some of the smaller locations in the network, AI-assisted reporters are using the technology to rewrite press releases and draft other types of routine new stories. Those stories are presented to readers with salient disclosures. At The Enquirer, the news stories you read are written by human reporters.
Quinn and I had been together for a while. We’ve both seen how the digital revolution has impacted local news, and AI promises to do the same, so we’re not sitting idly by. It’s better to make the mess ourselves than wait for someone else to do it for us.
My pledge to you is to be transparent and to take you along.
Enquirer Editor-in-Chief Beryl Love writes a biweekly column that takes you behind the scenes at the Enquirer. Occasionally, he shares his thoughts on local issues, especially those related to free press and open government. Email blove@enquirer.com. I can’t personally reply to every email, but I read them all.
