AI Project

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"The Future Press" Project

The AI Journalism Project is a new venture exploring if AI chatbots can produce quality journalism the same way humans can, where AI can support journalists, where its limitations lie and how it will affect the industry as a whole. Below is a press release written by ChatGPT and edited by Sophia Kurz.

Press release:

The Media Innovation Group at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism and Media is proud to announce the launch of a new AI-powered news site called "The Future Press." This venture is part of The AI Journalism Project, which aims to explore how AI can be a useful tool for journalists and where its limitations may lie.

“This is such an exciting project to work on because I want to find out how AI can be a useful tool for journalists," said Robert Quigley, Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Texas's School of Journalism and Media and advisor for The AI Journalism Project. "We have great students on this project, and I think this will be a good learning experience as they test AI’s limitations and opportunities.”

Gracie Warhurst and Sophia Kurz are both managing the project as students in the School of Journalism and Media.

"I am excited to be a part of this innovative and ever-growing field, and be on the front end of an AI-powered world," said Gracie Warhurst, Project Manager for The Future Press. "Journalism is an industry that has adapted to changes in technology since its inception, and adapting to the use of AI is no different of a feat than adapting to the use of social media. I hope by the end of our research we will have a confident viewpoint of in what way AI will assist journalists."

Kurz also says she is eager to see how AI will change journalism and where it can fit into the industry. "Artificial Intelligence is the future of tech, and I'm really curious to see that play out in this news site," Kurz said.

Christian McDonald, Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Texas's School of Journalism and Media and innovation director of The Media Innovation Group, says he’s excited for Kurz and Warhurst to explore this important convergence of technology and journalism.

"It will be important for us as journalists to understand how large language models can enhance and influence how we do quality, truthful journalism work," McDonald said.

The Future Press will use AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, to write articles based on prompts that include quotes and facts. From there, human journalists will edit the pieces for AP style, grammar, punctuation and libel. The site aims to provide readers with accurate, timely and relevant news content.

Media Innovation Group projects are funded through the Dallas Morning News Journalism Innovation Endowment. The group conducts projects to better understand the intersections between media, technology and the future of innovation. The launch of The Future Press represents an exciting step forward in this goal, and we invite readers to join us on this journey.

 

Here is the prompt we wrote to get our result:

Prompt: create a PR announcement about a new AI-generated news site called "The Future Press" as part of The AI Journalism Project as part of the Media Innovation Group at UT Austin and implement these quotes: 

“This is such an exciting project to work on because I want to find out how AI can be a useful tool for journalists.” said Robert Quigley, Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Texas's School of Journalism and Media.

“We have great students on this project, and I think this will be a good learning experience as they test AI’s limitations and opportunities.” said Robert Quigley, Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Texas's School of Journalism and Media.

"I'm excited for Sophia and Gracie to explore this important convergence of technology and journalism. It will be important for us as journalists to understand how large language models can enhance and influence how we do quality, truthful journalism work," said Christian McDonald, Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Texas's School of Journalism and Media and innovation director of The Media Innovation Group.

"I am excited to be apart of this innovative and ever-growing field, and be on the front end of an AI powered world. There is power in knowing what AI can and can’t do, and how humans can use AI as a tool. Journalism is an industry that has adapted to changes in technology since its inception, and adapting to the use of AI is no different of a feat than adapting to the use of social media. I hope by the end of our research (if there ever is a true end) we will have a confident viewpoint of in what way AI will assists journalists," said Gracie Warhurst, Project Manager for The Future Press.

"I'm really interested to see where AI can fit into journalism, and likewise, where journalism can fit into AI. Artificial Intelligence is the future of tech, and I'm really excited to see that play out in this news site," said Sophia Kurz, Project Manager for The Future Press.

The goal of the project is to use AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, to write articles based on prompts, quotes, facts, etc that we input. From there, humans will edit the piece for AP style, grammar and punctuation, libel, etc.

Subscribe to receive updates on their progress and findings here.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized the Media Innovation Group as an institute within the Moody College of Communication, which it is not. The name is used to denote student projects funded through the Dallas Morning News Innovation Endowment, but not directly affiliated with the Morning News newsroom. Both the edited release and the prompt used with ChatGPT have been updated, though the chatbot response would likely differ if it were run again.

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