About
Journalism faces a decline of traditional business models. News leaders are increasingly pressured to reorient toward data-driven logics. Many news organisations now bet big on AI investments, hoping that the technology can generate additional revenue or free up staff time.
But problems emerge: Some journalists fear being replaced with AI; There are possible frictions between journalistic values and the values encoded into AI systems and infrastructures; Little is known about the impact of AI on the news and the health of our public discourse. AI also poses the risk of making news organisations even more reliant on the technology and platforms companies that dominate in AI development—potentially aggravating the economic problems that news organisations face.
Please join us for a half-day symposium where these issues will be discussed with leading industry figures, organised and moderated by Felix M. Simon, with support from the Oxford Internet Institute, Balliol College, and the TORCH Minderoo Challenge Fund in AI Governance.
This event will be in-person and conducted under the Chatham House Rule, although a summary report will be available after the event.
As available spaces are limited, registration is required and tickets will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Programme
AI in the Workplace
13:15-14:15
What are the tensions and issues emerging from AI’s use in newsrooms? How are these tensions dealt with?
- Chris Moran, Head of Editorial Innovation, The Guardian
- Shreya Vaidyanathan, Product Manager, Bloomberg LP
- Jane Barrett, Global Editor for Media News Strategy, Reuters
- Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, Banking and Fintech correspondent, Financial Times
*Coffee Break*
AI, News, and the Role of the Technology Sector
14:45-15:45
Which role does the technology sector, and big tech, play in the news’ adoption of AI? How do news organisations respond?
- Melissa Heikkilä, Senior Reporter for AI, MIT Technology Review
- Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
- David Caswell, Executive Product Manager, BBC
*Coffee Break*
The Long View: AI and the Implications for Public Discourse
16:15-17:15
What are the long-term implications of AI for the news industry, information ecosystems, and public discourse? How should AI be used and regulated to ensure a balanced and healthy public arena?
Felix M. Simon in conversation with Tom Standage, Deputy Editor, The Economist
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Moderator
Felix M. Simon is a journalist turned communication researcher, and doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), a Knight News Innovation Fellow at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and an affiliate at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also works as a research assistant at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) and regularly writes and comments on technology, media, and politics for various international outlets. His research seeks to understand the structural implications of artificial intelligence for news organisations’ gatekeeping processes—the production and distribution of news—and the public arena, with a special emphasis on the role of technology companies.
Speakers
Jane Barrett is Global Editor for Media News Strategy at Reuters, working closely with clients and other players in media and tech to explore and plan future areas of growth for the news industry. She led a mass change to build multimedia capabilities into Reuters global newsgathering and production systems and has previously worked as a business editor and reporter in London and abroad.
David Caswell is an Executive Product Manager at BBC News, working on news innovation prototypes, products, and strategy. He previously led product management for data and machine learning at Tribune Publishing and was the Director of Product Management for Content Understanding at Yahoo! Caswell has also researched and published extensively on computational, structured and automated forms of journalism, including as a Fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Melissa Heikkilä is a senior reporter at MIT Technology Review, where she covers artificial intelligence and how it is changing our society. Previously she wrote about AI policy and politics at POLITICO. Forbes named her as one of its 30 under 30 in European media in 2020.
Chris Moran is The Guardian’s head of editorial innovation and the former audience editor. He uses data in the newsroom to execute strategic projects like content reduction and is the bridge between editorial and product, identifying opportunities for new features and ideas that capture the unique voice and values of the Guardian. He is the co-creator of Ophan, the Guardian’s realtime analytics tool.
Nic Newman is a Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism where he is author of the annual Digital News Report, the world’s largest on-going study of consumer behaviour around news. He also authors an influential annual report on media and technology trends which tracks, amongst other innovations, the growing impact of AI on journalism. Nic was a founding member of the BBC News Website in 1997 and a former head of product and technology at BBC News where he sat on both the Journalism and Technology Boards.
Tom Standage is Deputy Editor of The Economist and editor of its future-gazing annual, The World Ahead. He is also the author of seven history books, including “The Victorian Internet” (1998) and the New York Times bestsellers “A History of the World in 6 Glasses” (2005) and “An Edible History of Humanity” (2009). Tom studied engineering and computer science at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, the Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in technology’s social and historical impact.
Shreya Vaidyanathan is a Product Manager in the office of the CTO at Bloomberg LP, where she builds data products using alternative data, and prior to this, she focused on leveraging ML & NLP for automated breaking news. She obtained her graduate degrees from Columbia University in Computer Science and Journalism which motivated her to create impactful products at the intersection of news, technology, and finance. Curiosity drives her exploration into all things tech, data privacy, and women’s rights.
Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan is the Banking and Fintech Correspondent at the Financial Times. He has covered numerous aspects of the technologies, including reporting on the multi-billion stablecoins Tether and USD Coin, a deep dive into companies claiming to use Web3 for magazine articles on the cult of crypto and metaverse real estate, as well as moderating a panel at the inaugural crypto policy symposium on the contagion risks cryptocurrencies pose to wider financial markets.
