A column in the state’s largest paper’s weekend edition defensively warned readers of the growth of AI-sourced news.
Only one small problem with the concept in that piece, written by Ethan Horton.
To wit, the paper by its own admission has been looking at using more AI-based sourcing.
Horton’s article was headlined “Is the Maine news on your social media feed AI-generated? How you can tell.”
It went on to give readers a heads-up: don’t trust everything you read.
Funny Horton should mention not trusting everything you read,vid you get the drift.
Even as the Maine Trust for Local News – the nonprofit that owns the Press Herald – is alerting you to avoid stuff that may not be credibly reported the trust’s top official is looking at exploring the use of – drum roll – more AI material.
“There are hundreds if not thousands of public meetings going on in the state of Maine, and it’s impossible to go to or even just watch all of them today,” Mark Stodder, chairman of the trust’s board, told Columbia Journalism Review as long as a full year ago.
“We’ve been trying to cover how many typical meetings are not covered, and trying to figure out what we can do about it.” Stodder added in editorial contortion.
Lest anyone be confused by “trying to cover how many typical meetings are not covered,” Stodder left no doubt where he’s going with this.
“Stodder said the Maine Trust is currently exploring the possibility of forming its own partnership with” a new AI startup, CJR’s Roberto Ferdman wrote.
“‘We’re really excited about their commitment to doing good for these communities and bringing transparency to government,’” Stodder was quoted.
He was referring to an AI startup in Maine called Civic Sunlight, which Ferdman a year ago said was trying to work the bugs out of its unreliable AI content, no matter how little may be fake news.
A month after Stodder gave that interview, his favorite paper announced the creation of a fact-checking team that would using a well-known platform that sometimes uses “artificial intelligence” (AI) to “fact-check” the internet.
“We are not using AI for it in any way,” the paper’a fact-checking chief, Alex McCann, promised. “Gigafact does offer an AI-powered ‘parser’ tool, but we are not using it for this project (or, to my knowledge, any project),” McCann insisted.
If that weren’t enough evidence of Stodder ‘s paper embracing AI, the outlet six months ago accepted a $35,000 check from “Google Initiative” to fund “enterprising journalism.”
A $10,000 chunk of that windfall went to staff writer Katherine Lee’s self-designed project to use – in her very words “an AI-powered quiz tool that learns cuisine preferences … to deliver personalized restaurant recommendations.”
So much for Horton’s column Saturday bemoaning the use of artificial intelligence to help gather the news.
Can’t make it up folks.
Unless you’re the Portland Press Herald, that is.
