Do not be afraid, adapt and take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in a positive way to make our lives easier. These are some concepts that appeared yesterday at the conference on 'The impact of AI in newsrooms', held in Torre Glòries and with which the events to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Association of Magazine and Digital Editors began (APPEC).
With the participation as moderator of Josep Maria Ganyet, computer engineer and director of the conferences
The first thing he wanted to make clear to Ramon López de Mántaras, a CSIC research professor, is that this Artificial Intelligence is not human. It can't be compared. “Machines have abilities without understanding, they are not capable of understanding the world; in fact, we don't have to be afraid of AI but of natural stupidity”, he said, causing the attendees to smile.
For her part, Liliana Arroyo, general director of Societat Digital, contributed the idea that “relating with technology is a class issue in the sense that if you have the conditions to decode and have autonomy from this innovation, you will be in a better position to have hope in the technology; Otherwise, you can feel afraid and feel threatened”
And Albert Iruela, co-founder of the AI company Omnios, highlighted how this technological change has gained great speed in recent months: "We are in a change of era that will affect living and working conditions" and the great difference with respect to to other moments of technological change, he affirmed, "is the acceleration and the rhythm in which these changes will be made."
The relationship between society and information is one that will undergo changes. "I am concerned about the presidential elections in the United States," López warned, because he believes that "a lot of false information will circulate with very convincing videos and disinformation always benefits people like Trump more."
Iruela pointed out the importance in this context of prestigious headers: "Today you can only trust if a piece of news is true or has been generated by AI by the header that is issuing it." "We need a new social pact in the face of this revolution -Arroyo pointed out-, new collective spaces to share information because disinformation depends on complicity and we can be responsible for not advancing".
Regarding how AI can be applied to newsrooms, all the participants presented positive measures, far from catastrophizing, and see it as a good ally. For example, AI can generate "three-minute podcasts aimed at the specific interests of the reader at a certain time," Iruela commented. For this reason, the basis is “that the information from which the AI works is reliable; If you only work with truthful information that we provide you, you will not invent new things.”
Other positive uses can be to support the editor such as providing "historical information without having to search, which is an optimization of time," continued Iruela while Arroyo proposed a more prosaic aspect such as overcoming the fear of a blank page: " That gives a starting point to create and propose alternative scenarios and from here make decisions.
“This technology has come to stay. The work that has to be done is to learn, train, try to incorporate it, reinvent tasks and functions, and always be one step ahead of what the environment is doing to be more competitive”, concluded Iruela.
