Hype rating
AI usage
Who benefits?
Every December, Nieman Labs (a journalism think tank at Harvard) asks experts to predict what might happen in the journalism world in the next year. This article is a prediction by Jeremy Gilbert, professor of digital media strategy at Northwestern, and it lays out a system of personalized news delivery focused on the reader understanding the news.
The journalist would produce a collection of essential facts, concepts, and connections, and a generative AI would remix these to suit each reader’s level of knowledge and interest and create personalized experiences. Predictive AI would monitor each reader’s interests (via what they’ve been reading), and level of knowledge (via scroll speed, among other measures) to inform the generative AI choices.
Gilbert considers this beneficial for both journalists and readers.
What concerns does this bring up?
I think this is a terrifying prospect. Gilbert asserts that “The goal of journalism must be to ensure that each reader truly comprehends and can act upon what they learn. Generative AI will help us assemble and reassemble these stories to meet the needs of our audience members.” But if we aren’t reading the same story, and there’s no canonical version of the story that’s universally accessible, how do we discuss the news? If each member of a community sees only the news that interests them individually, and only the aspects of that news that they’re most likely to engage with, how do we have any shared understanding? I honestly never expected journalists to build a more effective filter bubble!
And, of course, there are privacy questions — tracking a subscriber’s reading and also their responses (like scroll speed) seems invasive and problematic. Again, not what I expected from journalists.
Additional comments
I think the author has a really specific concept of the role of journalism, and it has nothing to do with the health of the body politic. I also think there are economically compelling reasons for some news providers to consider this kind of experiment, and I really hope it fails.