Technologists and AI in the newsroom: by Stefanie Sirén-Heikel

What use is AI to newsrooms, from the viewpoint of technologists? We asked technologists developing AI-tools for text generation about their relationship with journalism, to find out how they construct the logic for developing and applying their technologies in newsrooms. Our findings show technologists clearly differentiating from journalism, yet expressing a strong normative view of what journalism should be, and how their technologies aid in this pursuit. 

Stefanie Sirén-Heikel is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, studying the impact of AI and automation on journalism, focusing on the changes in newswork.