Artificial Intelligence & the News Media

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) raises prospects of a 21st century version of the Industrial Revolution, in which technology dramatically increases productivity and sharing of knowledge. These prospects seem likely to affect many aspects of life including work, learning, art and culture. In this course, we explore potential effects of artificial intelligence on a specific sphere of activity—how current affairs news is gathered, presented and consumed by journalists and the public, and manipulated by governments and others.  We discuss how the news media might evolve using artificial intelligence, and how understanding and conduct of national and world events could be affected. We touch on the mechanics of artificial intelligence as it pertains to news media, with examples of how AI is used by news organizations, including the creation of news-like content consumed by the public, potential effects on elections, and whether AI image-making is changing the adage, “Seeing is believing.”  We also highlight AI image manipulation and “newscasting.”