By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
The AFRO is conducting an online survey in collaboration with the Local Media Association and the Local Media Foundation’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Community Journalism Lab and Trusting News. The goal is to gather readers’ input on how AI should be used in journalism.
The survey will be open from Aug. 3-16.
“As a 133-year-old legacy media company, the AFRO is committed to evolving with new technologies while staying true to our core mission,” said Dana Peck, digital solutions director for the AFRO. “Generative AI is a tool that can support our mission of uncovering truth and helping our readers understand the world more deeply.”
Generative AI, such as Chat GPT, is a computer system that can create new texts, images or sounds based on a user’s prompts, according to the National Library of Medicine. These systems learn by identifying patterns in large sets of data and then crafting responses to users’ queries based on what it has learned.
According to a series of national surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in August and November 2024, generative AI is quickly becoming widely embraced in the workplace. Together, the surveys included responses from over 10,000 individuals.
Among respondents who used the technology in the past week, 20.5 percent reported saving four or more hours on work-related tasks. Overall, the report finds that between 1 and 5 percent of all work hours are now being assisted by generative AI.
Peck explained that three guiding principles will inform the AFRO’s approach in exploring the use of generative AI in the newsroom: enhancing the mission through technology, guidance by human expertise and a commitment to transparency and ethics.
“AI and machine learning already assist us in telling stories that would otherwise be untold, and generative AI has the potential to strengthen our journalistic capabilities further,” she said. “From delivering audio versions of our stories via Everlit, to creating social captions and key words via NOTA, or graphics via Canva, we aim to use AI in ways that make the AFRO more accessible to a wider audience.”
Peck emphasized that the judgment and expertise of the AFRO’s journalists are irreplaceable and provide an edge that machines cannot replicate.
“While generative AI, Chat GPT or Tansa may assist with certain aspects of our work (i.e. editing, social media captions, article summaries, headlines, newsletter creation, etc.), our journalists must remain in control of the process,” said Peck.
In addition to the survey, the AFRO’s collaboration with the Local Media Association and the Local Media Foundation’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Community Journalism Lab and Trusting News provides an opportunity for newsrooms to explore AI options that help streamline operations and come up with novel ideas on how to do that via a project.
“We plan to integrate AI into our Instagram and Facebook platforms to convert community content into social media posts,” said Peck.
Go to the following link to take the survey before August 16th.