Newsroom Robots

David Clinch, the Vice President of Partnership at Mather Economics and Managing Director at Media Growth Partners, joins Nikita Roy to discuss the critical choice between building or buying AI tools in newsrooms. With his extensive experience advising major publishers, David sheds light on how AI is reshaping newsroom strategies and the critical trade-offs news organizations face in the era of AI...

In this second part of the episode with Simon Willison, he shares how Datasette , the open-source data exploration and publishing tool he built, could help journalists perform data analysis with minimum technical expertise. He also shares some fun use cases of ChatGPT in his personal life.  Simon, a former software architect at The Guardian and a JSK Journalism Fellow at Stanford University,...

Simon Willison, the creator of the open source data exploration and publishing tool Datasette , joins Nikita Roy to discuss the recent turmoil at Open AI and the new features unveiled at OpenAI’s first developer conference earlier this month. They discuss the security risks inherent in generative AI applications and explore the usefulness of small language models for journalists, particularly for...

Lynn Walsh, the Assistant Director of Trusting News , joins Nikita Roy to discuss how newsrooms should think about their relationship with audiences when adopting AI. She also highlights opportunities to use AI to enhance trust and engagement with the news. Lynn is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who has worked in investigative, data and TV journalism for over 15 years. Currently at Trusting News...

Dr. Mario R. Garcia, Senior Adviser on News Design and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, joins Nikita Roy to discuss how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing news design and creating new opportunities for visual storytelling. Mario shares insights from his extensive research and his new book, ' AI: The Next Revolution in Content Creation ,' on how AI is being applied in newsrooms glo...

Paul Quigley, the CEO of NewsWhip, joins Nikita Roy to discuss how NewsWhip aids newsrooms in identifying trending stories and predicting viral news through real-time social media monitoring and analytics. He discusses how his team is integrating large language models and shares his perspective on the transformative impact that generative AI could have on the news media business model. NewsWhip, a...

Newsroom Robots now has a newsletter! Subscribe to receive podcast summaries and be the first to know when a new episode is released. Sign up here . In this episode, Jeff Sonderman, the founder and CEO of Delta Flow Solutions, joins Nikita Roy to discuss the transformative potential of generative AI in streamlining business operations across analytics, marketing, product management, and content ac...

Ernest Kung, the AI Product Manager for The Associated Press joins Nikita Roy to share how the AP has been helping local newsrooms implement artificial intelligence into their workflows as part of the Local News Initiative. He also discusses the deal that AP signed with OpenAI and the newsroom’s recently published AI guidelines.  Before joining the AP, he was an award-winning local television...

Charlie Beckett, Professor and Founding Director of Polis, the international journalism think tank at the London School of Economics and Munmun De Choudhury, Associate Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, join host Nikita Roy in this episode. Together, they explore the intricacies of AI-generated misinformation, its potential implications on election and the role...

Uli Köppen, Head of AI + Automation Lab and Co-Lead of BR Data at Germany's Public Broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), and Miranda Marcus, Head of BBC News Labs, join Nikita Roy for a conversation on how AI has been a part of their newsrooms. This episode is a recording of the virtual panel at the Online News Association's ONWARD-2023 event on September 28, 2023. Uli Köppen is Head of the AI +...

Nick Diakopoulos, Communication Studies and Computer Science Professor at Northwestern University joins Nikita Roy to discuss the opportunities fine-tuning Large Language Models offer for news organizations, and the impact of generative AI on news production and the broader information ecosystem.  Nick directs the Computational Journalism Lab and is Director of Graduate Studies for the Techno...

Francesco Marconi, the co-founder and CEO of AppliedXL , joins Nikita Roy to discuss the opportunities and challenges that Large Language Models present to the news industry, emphasizing the need for collaboration between tech companies and newsrooms. Francesco also covers copyright and data access challenges and proposes long-term business model innovations to support news organizations and the A...

Chris Dinn joins Nikita Roy to talk about building AI bots for his Toronto news startup, Torontoverse . Chris also explores the Online News Act's effects in Canada and AI's potential impact on the news industry. Chris is the Emmy award-winning founder and publisher of Torontoverse, a Toronto-based digital news startup harnessing cutting-edge technology for local news delivery. He earned his Emmy i...

Mark Hansen joins Nikita Roy to discuss how generative AI can enhance data journalism, particularly by accelerating coding tasks. The discussion also addresses bias and privacy concerns associated with AI models. Mark is the East Coast Director of The Brown Institute for Media Innovation, a collaborative initiative between Columbia Journalism School and Stanford's School of Engineering.  Mark...

Liam Andrew, the Chief Product Officer at The Texas Tribune joins Nikita Roy to discuss how they built a data warehouse and analytics hub to provide transparency around key metrics for their newsroom. Liam also shares how The Tribune has implemented tools like automatic content tagging and content recommendations using AI.  In his role at the Tribune, Liam leads the newsroom's software strate...

Uli Köppen, head of the AI + Automation Lab at German Public Broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, joins Nikita Roy to discuss how BR's newsroom has integrated AI across its entire news cycle. Uli shares her team's work on algorithmic accountability, AI strategy, generative AI experiments, and their experience integrating AI in the newsroom. Uli also co-leads BR Data, the newsroom's investigative data...

Jeremy Caplan joins Nikita Roy to discuss the evolving landscape of AI tools by analyzing their use cases, addressing the challenges they present, and offering tips for enhancing productivity through strategic AI adoption Jeremy Caplan is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He also leads the school's Entrepreneurial...

Scott Brodbeck joins Nikita Roy to discuss his experiments using generative AI in his local newsroom, from creating completely AI-generated newsletters and AI-generated videos to ad copy and back-office support. He also shares his views for other small newsrooms looking to experiment with AI.  Scott is the founder and CEO of Local News Now, which owns and operates three hyperlocal news websit...

In the second part of this episode with Elite Truong, she shares her work leading AI products like Metrics for News and Source Matters at the American Press Institute for local newsrooms.  She shares how AI can help local news and her advice for product managers looking to incorporate emerging tech, like generative AI. Elite is the Vice President of Product Strategy at the American Press Inst...

Elite Truong joins Nikita Roy to delve into her journey of leading AI products, first at The Washington Post and now at the American Press Institute, in a special two-part episode.  In part one, Elite shares insights from her work on Heliograf, The Washington Post's robot reporter that debuted in 2016. She discusses the evolution of the product under her leadership and explores the potential...

Aimee Rinehart, the Senior Product Manager of AI Strategy for The Associated Press  joins Nikita Roy to discuss how AP is using AI and the tools being built as part of AP’s Local News AI Initiative. Aimee shares AP's current approach of learning and experimentation with generative AI through projects around translation, image identification and search.  Before joining AP, Aimee served as the Deput...

Mark Briggs joins Nikita Roy to discuss the core components necessary for building an AI-ready newsroom culture. Mark also shares the findings of a recent survey on audience perceptions of using AI in news. Mark is the author of the widely-used book 'Journalism Next,' now in its fourth edition and used in colleges across the United States. He was a leadership and change management professor at the...

Dalia Hashim joins Nikita Roy to unpack the nuances of incorporating AI into journalism. She provides critical questions to consider when engaging with AI vendors, elaborating on facets of clear communication, comprehension of tool limitations, and the importance of oversight. Dalia also delves into the ethical quandaries with AI use in newsrooms, particularly around potential job displacement. Sh...

Santiago Lyon joins Nikita Roy to discuss how Adobe's Content Authenticity Initiative is taking an active role in combating misinformation through digital content provenance. He discusses how Adobe addresses ethical issues and brings transparency to its AI-enabled products, like the new generative fill feature in Adobe Photoshop. He also touches upon the transformative impact of generative AI on t...

Dr. Gregory Gondwe joins Nikita Roy to discuss the embedded stereotypes and biases in Generative AI models that put the Global South at a disadvantage. He also shares his findings on how journalists in sub-Saharan Africa leverage ChatGPT, with insights derived from his recently published journal article, "CHATGPT and the Global South: how are journalists in sub-Saharan Africa engaging with generat...