The rise of the AI class

If you’re not paying close attention, you might dismiss generative AI as a fleeting technophilic trend or an existential threat. This year’s breathless chatter about ChatGPT echoes past hoopla over blockchain, NFTs, or the “pivot to video.” Moreover, AI certainly had its pitfalls this year. Missteps involving AI-driven articles not only embarrassed the responsible news organizations but also undermined the credibility of journalism itself, which is already grappling with historically low trust levels. All told — and with apologies to David Carr — it’s easy to see why some view generative AI as a robot created by Silicon Valley to destroy us.

Yet this technology offers immense and accessible benefits to our industry, aiding journalists — and those who support them — in previously unimaginable ways. Much like the Industrial Revolution transformed manual labor, generative AI will dramatically amplify our cognitive output. Consider Tony Stark. He did pretty well on his own. Drop him in an Iron Man suit, though, and look out. In an industry shedding publishers and jobs and routinely challenged to do more with less, we’re foolish not to at least try on the generative AI suit.

I predict a noticeable divide in 2024 between those who embrace generative AI and those who don’t. This shift will lead to an “AI class” among individuals and newsrooms. I’m not talking about published content in which AI plays a role. While we’ll see responsible newsrooms tackling reporting that wouldn’t be possible without AI to, say, comb through mounds of unstructured data, the big changes will benefit newsroom operations. Organizations and individuals leveraging generative AI will significantly outperform their peers when it comes to areas like audience engagement, donor stewardship, computer programming, and sales targeting.

Yes, generative AI carries ethical and technical concerns, but it’s a net positive and the potential benefits are game-changing. In a previous era, data journalism marked a similar watershed moment. Newsrooms that embraced data stood out as innovators. To the public, they offered groundbreaking reporting and visualizations. Internally, data-informed strategies in product development, content delivery, and revenue generation propelled these newsrooms forward. Generative AI is poised to have a similar impact, but on a much larger scale, profoundly altering our operational efficiency and output.

AI won’t save journalism, but it will transform it. Next year, the adoption of generative AI will not just be a technological choice. It will be a defining factor in the competitive edge and innovative capacity of news organizations, big and small.