The Benefits and Risks of AI

Here are more insights from our CAHSS News conversation with Deputy Opinion Editor and Columnist for the “Washington Post” David Von Drehle and “Wall Street Journal” Live Journalism News Editor Sara Castellanos, ahead of their Estlow and Margolin masterclasses and lectures. 

What is your opinion about the use of AI programs in writing? Have you run into examples of AI-generated stories that are spreading misinformation or disinformation in conducting your own research and, if so, how did you discern fact from fiction?

Castellanos: First, AI could very well be a tool to help data journalists to find insights in broad data sets. But in my opinion, fact tracking, fact checking, speaking the truth and interviewing people will always need to be done by students and journalists. I don’t think that AI can replace or replicate that. There will always be a need for human journalists, and I think people recognize that. 

AI can be used to summarize a lot of disparate pieces of information across the internet that are not always accurate, or they might contain pieces of accurate information but lack context. I’ve seen instances of that, and the Journal has done some reporting on that. I don’t have any specific tools that I use to separate fact from fiction, but I think it’s incredibly important for students to verify the source of information and look up and consider the media profile on the publisher.

One of the things that I’m going to talk about in my lecture masterclass is broadening your media diet because I think it’s not uncommon for people to just read or listen to one or two news sources. And you don’t always have to pay for the news, you can sign up for free newsletters from the “Wall Street Journal” or the “Washington Post” or other news organizations.

Von Drehle: I don’t knowingly use AI in my research, but I do google searches that use AI. I used to love to google and felt like I was good at using it to find reliable information and AI has not helped that at all. But I don’t knowingly use it beyond my research, and I don’t use it at all in my writing. 

I can imagine that we might soon be at a place where AI can help produce useful first drafts and that could be an interesting teaching tool. Because so much time and effort are spent by young writers in getting their first draft out that they run out of time to edit, and you learn a lot more about writing from editing something than you do from writing first drafts.