AI’s Transformation of Journalism
By Dan Forbush
Many thanks to the Saratoga Torch Club for the invitation to lead a conversation Monday night, September 22, at the Saratoga Springs Holiday Inn focused on AI's transformation of journalism.
For dinner, join us at 6 p.m. Your choices are Sweet Potato Tortellini Alfredo or Pecan Crusted Cod. You'll be asked for $40 at the door. To save a seat, drop a note to Torch Club President Gerald Stulc at : gstulc73@gmail.com by September 18.
For the conversation only, come at 7 p.m. It’s free, but please drop a note to Gerald so we’ll be sure to put out have enough chairs.
This conversation is the first in a series focused on AI hosted by the Saratoga Torch Club, Saratoga Book Festival, and Academy for Lifelong Learning are hosting this fall. See the full calendar here.
I'll be joined by Mike Nelson, whose team at Five Towers Media is employing AI in the production of two podcasts, Buying Local and Food for Thought with Steven Zabala.
We’ll make three main points:
Reporters are at the front line of the evolutionary phase change that Ray Kurzweil calls the "Singularity," Byron Reese calls our "Fourth Age," and Sam Rad calls our "Radical Next." Since we’re in the business of generating words and images at high speeds, we’re among the first to be astounded by the remarkable powers of generative AI.
AI can be of immense help in supporting the civic conversations necessary for an informed citizenry that supports democratic values.
We can develop a new public information system powered by college students working in collaboration with AI.
We’re demonstrating such a system in the Smartacus Neural Net, a suite of machine-learning tools that enables our Skidmore team to mine and publish expert knowledge in the public interest.
With these tools, students can transform interview transcripts into magazine-length features and audio narratives of any length and in any genre and style with unprecedented accuracy, efficiency, and speed.
Young people must learn to create content with the most advanced collaborative and AI tools to succeed in a communications environment that’s as suffused by AI as by electricity. That’s the experience we give them in Smartacus.
We’ve been at this for ten years. Now empowered by AI, we’re launching three Substack publications to which you may subscribe on the following sites:
We’re offering these publications at no charge for now. Please subscribe and let us know what you think of this new form of civic journalism. And please join us for dinner and conversation.
