MichaelWolffMMJ Blog

LIFE WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND AI

Undermining the Public's Trust

AI Imagery such as deepfakes, I firmly believe both undermine the public's trust and also take credibility away from the public's trust. Based on many of the journalistic integrity principles I have learned from throughout my time at Elon. Though tools such as data wrapper and diagram.io will be extremely beneficial for people in newsrooms who are data, enterprise, and investigative centric, I feel, as the Associated Press says that 20% (in my opinion preferably more) should be done by humans.

Best Practices Going Forward for Regulating Artificial Intelligence

With over approximately 2,000 new AI tools and platforms come out on a monthly basis, to me it seems that there is no possible way that 1 individual, government or regulatory organization could possibly be able to keep up with and keep track of what is good or bad from a utilitarianism perspective.

_____________________________________________________________ CLASS NOTES

AI JOURNALISM TOOLBOX 

HOW AP USES AI

80: 80% of process can be automated 

20: 20% requires hand done fact checking 

AI: A Journalists Approach 

Traget repetitive tasks 

AI Tools the bad:

easier to create misinformation and disinformation 

Where is my data going? 

Ai=I Transcription tools and concerns 

Otter 

Terms of Service: allows the company to take and use the data 

Otter, benefits and drawback of transcribing and logging by hand.

(HOW HONEST ARE THESE COMPANIES SUCH AS OTTER WITH THEIR USERS ABOUT PERSONAL AND PRIVATE INFORMATION

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Generated AI: Biases 

ask to write a love story and it will write a hetero based love story 

Asked Stable diffusion to create a picture of an inmate output: is a 

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Where copyrights stand 

Any works using AI may be copyrighted given that the content, piece includes human 

March 15, 2023: Copyright law decision

Copyright Laws of Concern

Fair Use 

allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism comment, news reporting, etc 

MidJourney V6 has cleaned up “tells” on fake images

Discolosing AI Use to Audience 

when of you tell readers that you used Ai to produce something? 

Do you feel readers and audience that you spell checked something? 

Ethics Guidelines from SPJ NPPA, PRSA, TrustingNews.com 

Using the term art director when published to the public in disclosing AI USE 

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Best Practices to Achieve Results and Outputs for Journalistic Settings

How would you like the AI to respond/what you’d want 

Tell the software how to treat me or the data enterer 

Using AI to find databases, with reliable online links? 

assign it a role tell the software to play the role for me

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Databases 

Open.Ai 

diagram (creates visually appealing graph

Hemingway App (cleans up grammar for writing and journalism: software to give you editing scores and to help you write? 

AI and Plagarism detection 

GPTZero

summarize.tech : will sumarize longer-form youtube videos 

video.yo 

open.ai.com

openai.com 

video.ai

Deep dream generator 

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Now that the first half of the semester has winded down and I have had a little down time to reflect on my own personal story and the process in which I used to create it.

What did doing this project mean to you?

Completing this project, became more meaningful to me as my story development progressed and I was forced to make creative decisions to ensure my project came in at or under time. I decided towards the end of my process to scrap the inciting incident that motivates me to keep pushing and striving to be the best Michael Wolff that I could be very very late, almost a week before everything was due, due to the fact that I came to feel that my struggle with addiction and aunt's cancer death seemed too emotional not just to share with my class mates but also with the world due to the fact that I am still living and working through both of these challenges in my life on a daily basis. This project was really a testament to myself and my family, everything we've been through and my personal development and resilience up to this point in my life, my "swan song" per se.

Did it work out to be what you'd planned or hoped for?

I thought a majority of this project worked out successfully for me personally. However, I though the ending of my documentary could've been improved for a stronger, more cohesive project overall.

Now that you've completed it and seen others, would you have done anything differently for your own?

Now that I have both completed re watched my own and watched my classmates projects. I wish I would have made a clear division between beginning middle and end, and also focus more on my personal story rather than using those around me to tell my story which I ended up not being so successful at in the end.

Final Thoughts

Did his story carry you through the complete video? 

Scott's story was incredibly engaging for me, I am an extremely empathetic and caring person and my parents always raised me to give to those less fortunate and blessed than our family. My family has had our own hardships but that has never stopped us from paying attention or notice others who struggle. I myself can see myself slipping/have started to slip into Scott's bad habits in New York City so this immediately grabbed my attention. My brother Spencer has a physical disability, so I have always had a great amount of care and passion for those with disabilities and deformities, and had many friends with facial deformities growing up, when I see something or someone like this it always engages my undivided attention till the conclusion or end.

Was it impactful? Were you moved to a personal feeling or emotion at any point in the video? The part in which Scott showcased his life and nonchalantness towards his declining mental health really really struck me, because up until very recently I was in a similar state myself putting on an act for those around that I was okay and had stopped using, while in reality I hadn't

What part did you feel was most powerful? 

How do you build trust with sources when reporting a sensitive story?

In my experience building trust with sources can be the most difficult aspect of my and all of our jobs as journalists, especially with all the reproductions at hand. I would say the best way to go about this is to ease into the interview and also try and prove to the source that you are trustworthy through showing them a piece of your past work but also to make the interview and approach to it more like an introduction and build the relationship through conversation. There is no cookie-cutter solution or answer to building a relationship with a source, in my mind.

What should you do if a source says "no" or pushes back on a question?

Sources may be skeptical of journalists for a number of reasons, especially of collegiate journalists who aren't associated with a press organization, corps or other professional media outlets. This video helped me further realize the value of anonymous sources especially within broadcast journalism stories and packages for television. Specifically the use of shadowing, reporter on the phone with a source from the news-van, field, newsroom, or other workspace. The best way I have seen this done is through a doorbell speaker outside a residence where a violent incident occurred. At the end of the day, each individual has to make that decision, and first respectfully asking someone if they feel comfortable is often the logical approach from a story process standpoint, however, especially in countries where authoritarian regimes and governments rule, the is more than just personal consent on the table between sources and journalists when communicating.

As a journalist covering stories of trauma, how can you safeguard your mental health?