Learn. Build. Critique.
Outreach to newsrooms. Public-facing tutorials. Research and experimentation. Explorations of AI’s ability to disrupt the news ecosystem, and to enhance or diminish audience trust. Training students and mid-career journalists on how to use AI ethically and responsibly. Building new tools to augment reporting and scholarship. Collaborating with other major players in AI, including departments across Columbia University.
CJS AI Events
In Dean Jelani Cobb’s words: “I want us to be a leader on AI. I see two roles – preventive and instructive. We need to be thinking about how we don’t want AI deployed in the newsroom and the classroom.
We also need to lead on the best ways to use AI tools to improve journalism, especially investigative reporting. How can these powerful tools be used responsibly and ethically?
We know there is going to be more of everything – more disruption, more bad behavior, more capacity, more ability to enhance our work. A decade from now, both climate and AI are going to be even more central. Emerging groups of journalists need to have a solid grasp on all of this."
I want us to be a leader on AI. I see two roles – preventive and instructive... How can these powerful tools be used responsibly and ethically?
Moving to fulfill that vision, Columbia Journalism School is producing thoughtful scholarship, timely journalism, and practical workshops to help students and news professionals adapt to the rapidly changing technological environment.
CJS and AI In the News
Here is a small sample:
Under the leadership of Mark Hansen, the Brown Institute (a bi-coastal collaboration between Columbia Journalism and Stanford Engineering) runs “Generative AI Dine and Design” evenings twice a month, drawing between 30 and 40 people from across campus – from the Business and Law Schools, from Data and Computer Science, from Statistics, from Architecture and, of course, from Journalism, both students and local practicing reporters. Attendees share experiences, work together to prototype new uses of AI, present new challenges, ask and answer questions.
In a similar spirit, Brown is the center of three days of activity on the Columbia campus in April— a series of panels on “AI and the Built Environment” on Friday, and a “Hackathon” on Saturday and Sunday, titled “Open Source AI: Catalyzing new forms of journalism and civic discourse.” Brown recently hosted Wikipedia Day with Wikimedia NYC, an event of 240 attendees focusing on AI and Wikipedia — how is Wikipedia used in training AI, and what is an appropriate use of LLMs in tending to Wikipedia entries?
The Tow Center for Digital Journalism, led by Emily Bell, recently released “Artificial Intelligence in the News: How AI Retools, Rationalizes and Reshapes Journalism in the Public Arena,” a detailed report researched over the course of over two years by Tow Center Fellow Felix Simon based on 170 interviews with industry and academic experts about the ways that AI is already transforming the industry.
Through the “Platforms and Publishers” project, an ongoing, multi-year study into the relationship between large-scale technology companies and journalism, Tow tracks the role of AI companies and their growing influence in the news industry. Tow is also the home of the Computer Science + Journalism Dual Masters degree program, where students are working on theses building AI-driven processes to assist newsrooms with tasks like data collection. Tow Center fellows and staff regularly publish articles about AI in the news industry in Columbia Journalism Review and the Tow Center Newsletter.
Jonathan Soma, Knight professor of practice and director of the school’s Data Degree Program, is researching the practical limitations of AI, including hallucinations, implications for fact-checking, and the role of trust and understanding by reporters. He trains his students to use AI to augment their journalism and is building tools to help with copy-editing and giving feedback on stories and programs such as Python. Professor Soma also publishes open-source guides, presents tutorials and gives talks – often to under-resourced newsrooms – to allow journalists to experience AI tools first-hand.
Finally, the newly relaunched Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security is exploring the thorny ethical questions that arise with the growing use of AI in newsrooms, and its rapid spread throughout society. The school’s required ethics course is being revamped to include the complex issues that arise from AI -- transparency with news consumers, newsroom standards for using the tools, and the growth of disinformation. Directed by Margaret Sullivan, the center will also be offering expertise and thought-leadership on AI to professional journalists, as well as to our students, in webinars and symposia and in published critiques.
CJS AI News
CJS alumni have proven themselves to be more than masters of their craft — they are trailblazers in the field.
As a collaboration between Columbia Journalism School and Stanford University’s School of Engineering, the Brown Institute for Media Innovation awa
Challenging the poor understanding of the effects of AI on the news industry and our information environment.