How The New York Times Uses AI in Journalism—and What Legal Bloggers Can Learn
October 14, 2024
The New York Times shared a list last week detailing how they use AI in journalism. I thought it was particularly relevant for legal bloggers and their own blogging/journalism
Here’s the Times list, verbatim.
- We use machine-learning models to sift through vast amounts of data for investigative reporting. For this investigation, our journalists programmed an A.I. tool to scan satellite imagery for bomb craters, which they then reviewed by hand.
- On parts of our homepage and at the bottom of articles, we use machine learning to recommend articles based on factors that can include what you’ve read before, your rough location and what’s popular among other readers.
- Our editors may employ generative A.I. tools to create initial drafts of headlines, summaries of Times articles and other text that helps us produce and distribute the news. That’s always done with human oversight and review, in accordance with our principles for the use of such tools. We don’t use A.I. to write articles, and journalists are ultimately responsible for everything that we publish.
- Artificial intelligence also helps us make The Times more accessible to more people. You can listen to most of our articles, through automated-voice technology, and read articles in Spanish created with the help of translation models. We thoroughly edit the translations before publication.
“Helps us produce and distribute the news,” says The Times.
AI helps legal bloggers, not replaces them, in sharing information. Legal bloggers are ultimately responsible for everything they publish.