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It's been difficult to go anywhere these days without AI (artificial intelligence). It is clear that AI will have a major impact on journalism. If you vote for each member of our team, I know you get a variety of opinions.
But we are also interested in your ideas. Over the next two weeks, we ask readers to share their opinions on artificial intelligence in relation to the work we are doing. The survey begins today and will be open until August 16th.
Zach Kuchalsky, executive editor of the Gazette
These are not questions we asked before. Don't worry, you don't need to be an AI expert to participate.
This research will be an important part of helping us understand your feelings and helping us to focus on our news competitive efforts and identifying how we can maintain trust to understand whether or not these tools will help us do journalism.
We've done some experiments with AI, but our rule of thumb is that it's not to trust anything for publication. The AI still needs to verify and determine that it is true.
As visual journalists record photos every day, they refrain from using images generated by AI unless they are disclosed to the audience and used to illustrate the capabilities of AI or provide illustrations.
When we explore how AI plays a role in the newsroom, we want to make sure we do so in a way that maintains your trust. Given the pace of rapid progress in this field, tools and techniques cannot be ignored. We promise to use AI ethically and transparently to explore how AI supports journalism.
We are also asking about its use, benefits and future. That's why we're looking for feedback on the use of AI in our newsrooms.
The survey asks about some of the tasks we perform, including transcription of interviews, construction, and monitoring datasets. And to address concerns, we don't see these AI tools as journalists' alternatives.
We recommend taking part in a simple survey titled “How should the newsroom use AI?” It was developed in collaboration with two major and respected national media organizations. Local Media Association/Local Media Foundation and Trust News provided expertise in coordinating the survey.
You can find the survey here.
The investigation should take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
Gazette is working with the local Media Association/Local Media Foundation's AI Community Journalism Lab and Trust News to conduct research.
In partnership with these groups and working with other newsrooms across the country, we will begin building datasets that can be used as a baseline for awareness. We can see whether our results are similar or different to other parts of the country, and we can see how these perceptions change over time.
I would like to say thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. Whether you're enthusiastic or skeptical, your feedback will help you make responsible and transparent choices when experimenting with this technology.
Thank you for reading,
Zack Kucharski, Executive Editor
