Even though very few companies are actually using AI now – a U.S. Census Bureau survey from November found only about 4% of businesses are using the technology – the anticipation is many, many more will use it in the future.
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For nearly two years now, I’ve been hearing how artificial intelligence is going to change the world. At industry conferences and training programs, AI champions have said the proliferation of AI will have a bigger impact on the human race than the invention of cars, or even the discovery of fire.
While people will readily make these world-changing claims, they are light on the details of how AI can actually be used to make me better at my job. With all technological advances, I understand the need to add these new tools to my toolbox, but I can’t say AI has had much of a change on my role at WBJ, yet. About a year ago, I spent about an hour with an AI image generator to try to develop an illustration for a story about maternal morbidity, but I didn’t like anything it came up with. I’ve been told I can use a chatbot to write social media posts, which I then have to edit, but I’ve found the process and the outcome is quicker and better if I just write them myself. The integration of awful AI results into Google Search has made me reconsider using it as my primary search engine.
But AI is about the future. In one of the main features of the July 22 edition called “Training the workforce in AI”, WBJ Editorial Intern Sara Bedigian writes about how Central Massachusetts colleges and universities are integrating AI into their curricula in order to create a workforce trained on the new technology, even as they navigate the benefits and pitfalls of using AI themselves. Even though very few companies are actually using AI now – a U.S. Census Bureau survey from November found only about 4% of businesses are using the technology – the anticipation is many, many more will use it in the future. Yes, AI is a pain now and very few people use it effectively, but the future economy will likely be run by those who understand its potential.
And AI is changing a few ways WBJ is working. Our reporters now add their signatures to our online stories, as part of an effort to let people know our content is written by humans. WBJ is developing an AI policy meant to lay out how we plan to use AI ethically while upholding the tenets of journalism. For another July 22 feature called "Home care, with the home", we did use a previously created AI image to illustrate a story about homelessness. None of this is bigger than the discovery of fire, but these are small steps into a future with AI.
