Cebu-based freelance journalist Max Limpag introduces new knowledge to the audience at the University of the Philippines Cebu on Wednesday afternoon, November 13, with his insights into harnessing AI tools in journalism. | CDN Digital photo by Niña Mae Oliverio
CEBU CITY, Philippines—The realm of digital technology is expanding. In a bid to introduce innovations that can assist humans in their activities, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a crucial development.
The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) defines AI as a “technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem-solving, decision-making, creativity, and autonomy.” [1]
AI has been a subject of debate in various conversations and forums in different fields, including academia, business, and even journalism. It is not new; its concepts emerged in the 1950s.
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Recent fads include the breakthrough in generative AI (gen AI), with ChatGPT as a popular example.
Some discussions on AI say it could pose a threat to journalism, arguing that it could replace journalists in their jobs as it can also carry out complex tasks like transcribing audio and videos in just a few minutes—which can be executed in Gen AI.
A Cebu-based freelance journalist recently highlighted the use of AI in journalism in his talk at a forum at the University of the Philippines-Cebu on November 13.
Max Limpag, a journalist who has been using and exploring AI tools in writing his news stories and reports, believes AI can help journalists do their jobs.
Limpag shared that when he asked around people, he found out that there had been a lack of awareness about AI tools, as well as laziness in using them.
Limpag vividly describes the reality of the local newsrooms now where the number of reporters is getting smaller, urging them “to do more.” Covering issues and events from one beat to another, Limpag believes that journalists can explore ways to expedite writing stories, and that is allowing AI tools to help them.
Integrating AI in journalism works
Limpag cited the study Digital News Report 2024, which said that consumers prefer AI to be used in the background to assist in reporting rather than replacing it, especially among broadcast journalists.
“For me, AI greatly helps when used to assist in reporting, not creating content. Otherwise, journalists would lose their jobs, “ he said in Cebuano.
Limpag urged attendees not to shy away from embracing AI. However, he said these innovations should serve as tools to enhance the craft, not replace the invaluable human touch that journalism requires.
“We should not put down the value of AI tools just because we cannot understand their value. Understand how they work and see how they can help us,” he said.
Furthermore, he emphasized that understanding how AI works requires understanding its key concepts. One of those is the large language models (LLM), which he defines as “very large deep learning models that are pre-trained on vast amounts of data” and “can generate new data based on the models.”
Another concept is the generation AI, which can be used to generate content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos.
Some AI tools
One of the AI tools that Limpag introduced was Google Pinpoint, which can automatically produce a transcription when you upload a recorded audio. It can also help journalists with investigative stories, breaking news analysis, audio and video transcriptions, fact-checking, collecting notes, and searching archives.
Similarly, there is also Google’s NotebookLM, where you can upload audio and video files, documents, and slides, and it can summarize the information for you in just a few minutes.
Limpag has been utilizing Pinpoint, and he recommended it can best help journalists comprehend documents with hundreds of pages that are only possible for a single person to go over if they spend a month for that.
He shared other transcribing tools, TurboScribe and Whisper API, which convert audio and video materials into text using their timestamps.
Another tool commonly known as a feature in smartphones’ operating systems (OS) is extracting text from an image. Users can automatically copy text from an image and paste it into their drafts rather than copying it manually, which can save a lot of time.
Challenges
Although AI is a valuable tool for assisting journalists and other professionals in their respective fields, it must be used responsibly.
Some AI tools place a reminder on the site that their tool can make mistakes and remind the user to check important information or double-check it, like in ChatGPT and Google’s NotebookLM, for example.
Another challenge in using AI, especially when transcribing audio, is that, for now, tools work well when the audio is clear and in English. Therefore, if there are words in a native language or dialect, you have to review them if you want to quote something.
But the automatic transcription tools, he said, are gradually improving their support for Filipino languages.
“We can expect better transcriptions of Bisaya and Filipino, maybe next year,” he said.
“If your reporting can be replaced by AI, then you should be replaced by AI.”
How it can help more
Limpag said that in addition to assisting in audio transcriptions and summarizing documents, journalists in the print or digital media can use AI to fact-check their articles, using fact-checking tools by Google.
These fact-checking tools are also helpful to editors, as they could help them save time in verifying the factuality of the stories they edit.
Limpag observed that some beat reporters unfamiliar with writing Court or Justice stories would need help comprehending court documents as the beat system in Cebu media has changed.
In Cebu, the main beats are the local government, province, region, and defense/police.
This is when AI can assist journalists when assigned to write court documents, using fact-checking tools to minimize the risk of misinterpreting the document.
For the broadcasters, Limpag said that they could utilize AI to understand the critical points of an issue or a document, especially when some do their commentaries.
Embracing AI tools’ capabilities can amplify journalists’ work pace. But Limpag echoed that AI should never replace their work.
He ended his discussion with a note: “If your reporting can be replaced by AI, then you should be replaced by AI.”
AI may be hard to learn initially, but eventually, journalists will recognize its help as they navigate ways of reporting news in a fast-paced digital environment.
Reference:
[1] Stryker, C., & Kavlakoglu, E. (2024, October 25). What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?. IBM. https://www.ibm.com/topics/artificial-intelligence