Media pros discuss ‘promise, perils of AI’ in newsrooms

KUCHING (June 30): Data and deepfakes, influencers and elections, hopes and fears – these were just a few of the topics explored during the East-West Center (EWC)’s biennial ‘International Media Conference’ held in Manila, the Philippines, just recently.

Hosting more than 400 journalists and media professionals from 30 countries, the event at the Philippine International Convention Centre focused on the theme ‘The Future of Facts’.

The speakers argued that the future of journalism would hinge on how responsibly artificial intelligence (AI) could be integrated in the newsrooms, stressing that while it could offer powerful tools, it needed to be ‘deployed carefully’.

News outlets are already finding advantages of using AI, whether it be for digital searches or dissecting data. The Associated Press’ AI-generated image search function, which can quickly sift through millions of images and video, is just one example.

AI is also particularly useful with data analysis, according to experts like Jaemark Tordecilla, a 2024 Nieman Fellow for Journalism at Harvard University; and Don Kevin Hapal, who heads data and innovation at Rappler, an online newspaper based in Manila.

Hapal said Rappler leverages AI for ‘civic engagement wherever possible’, while making sure to disclose its AI-powered content to its readers.

During the 2022 Philippine elections, for example, Rappler used ChatGPT to create profiles for 50,000 candidates running for public posts

“Tasks like these can be delegated to technology to free up reporters’ time to work on other important things,” said Hapal.

“We believe that human critical-thinking and creativity is the supreme.

“Nothing comes out without being reviewed by humans.”

Generative AI also allows newsrooms to take their articles and repurpose them to meet different demographics, according to Khalil A Cassimally, head of audience insights at the non-profit newsroom ‘The Conversation’ in Melbourne, Australia.

The Conversation’s editorial team recently used AI to repurpose stories written by human reporters to create a ‘microsite’, or landing page website, with information about the recent Indonesian election being catered to a younger audience.

“By using own content, the editors found few instances of ‘hallucination’, or inaccurate information, when conducting fact checks,” said Cassimally.

At the same time, the panellists of the Manila conference voiced concerns about technology companies’ role in perpetuating disinformation and the profit-driven nature of fake news.

They also discussed whether or not governments had a role in regulating such a phenomenon.

A few recent examples came up in the conversation, including:

• In Sri Lanka, the Parliament’s decision to pass a controversial Bill regulating online content and Internet use among its citizens raised international concerns about restricting free speech, and;
• In Canada, when the government passed its Online News Act in June, the company Meta avoided paying media companies newly-mandated fees by simply blocking news on Facebook in the country.

“Facebook said, okay, no more news for Canadians,” said Doc Ligot, chief executive of CirroLytix, a technology company based in the Philippines.

“So a flip of a switch in Facebook; suddenly an entire country goes dark.”

Ligot likened the power held by AI platforms and tech companies to ‘the equivalent of a veto in the United Nations Security Council’.

“Meanwhile, veritable news websites often have paywalls, while fake news websites are easy to find online and free to access,” he said, calling the current media landscape ‘lopsided’.

Another subject of discussion was about the panellists being generally more concerned with the potential power of AI in human hands than they were of it replacing traditional journalism jobs.

Irene Jay Liu, the regional director for Asia and the Pacific at the International Fund for Public Interest Media in Singapore and former head of Google News Lab for the region, said she was most wary of human use of AI as a tool to spread misinformation.

“I’m mostly sceptical of people,” she said.

“People lie all the time. I probably share incorrect information 20, 50 times a day.

“We all do because we’re humans. We should not pretend like humans are the ones that actually are infallible.”

On the other hand, online influencers could sometimes serve in the roles of traditional journalists – for better or for worse.

“That new dynamic has already influenced several elections across the globe,” said Liu, pointing to the Philippines as a recent example.

“In the Philippines, we saw how ‘nano influencers’ were able to shape the voters and connect with people in a way that traditional news was not necessarily able to do.”

In general, Liu said people would likely rely increasingly on their families and friends, chatbots, influencers and content-creators for information, rather than the traditional news media.

Back in 2016, the former Duterte-led government in the Philippines even gave online social media influencers presidential press accreditations, providing them the same access as that for professional journalists.

Syed Nazakat, founder and chief executive of DataLEADS in New Delhi, India, viewed AI as a ‘monstrous threat to democracy due to its power to fuel disinformation and propaganda’.

However, he also highlighted AI’s dual role: as a tool for disinformation in political elections, and as a means to combat it.

“Information warfare is happening at an unprecedented scale where everyone is trying to manipulate each other’s thinking,” said Syed Nazakat.

However, during the recent Indian presidential election, he said approximately 300 editors, journalists and fact-checkers worked together for four months to form a fact-checking collective called ‘Project Shakti’, meant to ensure that their news was factual and to fight against the machine of disinformation.

It used an early warning system code to flag content that could go viral.

“You can see the difference of that collaboration in the (election) results,” said Syed Nazakat, referring to the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi having won far fewer parliamentary seats than expected.

On this, Liu highlighted the need for more of such collaboration.

“Journalism is hard,” she said.

“It’s expensive in many countries. It’s dangerous.

“So we need to make sure that the model can thrive into the future.”

Established by the US Congress in 1960, the EWC promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the US, Asia and the Pacific through cooperative study, research and dialogue.

For links to all EWC media programmes, fellowships and services, go to www.eastwestcenter.org/journalists.