Post by jameshoff on Mar 14, 2024 5:39:11 GMT -5
Journalists must not make the same mistakes with artificial intelligence as with the Internet: fear, underestimation, rejection. ChatGPT and its companions are here and will remain: the best thing is to learn to know them and use them. Will they eliminate many jobs? Probably yes, but not the highest quality ones, so journalists must commit themselves in this direction. These are the challenges posed to journalism by new forms of generative artificial intelligence, at the center of the "Robot Journalist" course-debate, organized by Professione Reporter, which took place in Rome on 13 April. QUESTIONS IN THE EDITORIAL OFFICE Journalists, technology and law experts, representatives of the Journalists' Association and the trade union took turns on the stage of the eCampus theatre. They analyzed the main questions circulating in newsrooms and linked to the future of journalism.
The debate, animated by Andrea Garibaldi, started from the DY Leads considerations of the promoter of the meeting, Vittorio Roidi, who spoke of the lack of an adequate debate on the future of the profession, of the level of information, of the search for truth. Guido D'Ubaldo, President of the Order of Journalists of Lazio, recognized the risk of job losses, given the opportunity to reduce costs with artificial intelligence. For d'Ubaldo, as for other speakers, the tool to avoid "the editorial offices from becoming empty" is to increasingly focus on the high end of journalists' work. Pivoting on all those human and professional skills that technology will not be able to replicate. COUNTERACT PROGRESS Alessandra Costante, national secretary of the Fnsi, presented some examples of the use of artificial intelligence in Italian newsrooms and described how the experimental use and without adequate involvement of journalists is causing confusion and requests for intervention.
Costante underlined that artificial intelligence can represent for journalism "a fabulous bet towards the future, or a dangerous descent into darkness". It is up to the journalists themselves, and to those who can dictate the rules for the use of this technology, "to decide how to govern it, without fear and without fears". In this adaptation phase, for Costante it is "important not to make mistakes", as happened in the past, with the advent of the Internet, when professionals and publishers did not seize the opportunity and tried to counteract progress. The impossibility of preventing the development of technology was a central theme throughout the debate, as was the need to develop the right method of collaboration between man and technology. From the point of view of trade union rights and the regulation of journalistic work, Costante recalled that the National Labor Contract is still able to provide important protections, but these are no longer available for precarious workers, who are not included in the contract itself.
The debate, animated by Andrea Garibaldi, started from the DY Leads considerations of the promoter of the meeting, Vittorio Roidi, who spoke of the lack of an adequate debate on the future of the profession, of the level of information, of the search for truth. Guido D'Ubaldo, President of the Order of Journalists of Lazio, recognized the risk of job losses, given the opportunity to reduce costs with artificial intelligence. For d'Ubaldo, as for other speakers, the tool to avoid "the editorial offices from becoming empty" is to increasingly focus on the high end of journalists' work. Pivoting on all those human and professional skills that technology will not be able to replicate. COUNTERACT PROGRESS Alessandra Costante, national secretary of the Fnsi, presented some examples of the use of artificial intelligence in Italian newsrooms and described how the experimental use and without adequate involvement of journalists is causing confusion and requests for intervention.
Costante underlined that artificial intelligence can represent for journalism "a fabulous bet towards the future, or a dangerous descent into darkness". It is up to the journalists themselves, and to those who can dictate the rules for the use of this technology, "to decide how to govern it, without fear and without fears". In this adaptation phase, for Costante it is "important not to make mistakes", as happened in the past, with the advent of the Internet, when professionals and publishers did not seize the opportunity and tried to counteract progress. The impossibility of preventing the development of technology was a central theme throughout the debate, as was the need to develop the right method of collaboration between man and technology. From the point of view of trade union rights and the regulation of journalistic work, Costante recalled that the National Labor Contract is still able to provide important protections, but these are no longer available for precarious workers, who are not included in the contract itself.