by Joe Siegel

South Florida’s OutSFL, based in Wilton Manors, announced in February their intention to collaborate with nine other news organizations to “test public-facing AI disclosures within our stories.”

“As AI becomes more available and commonplace in our daily lives, it’s even more important to maintain clear and open communication about its role in content creation. This effort hopefully positions us at the forefront of AI transparency, an area of growing importance as newsrooms worldwide navigate the use of AI tools,” the newspaper announced.

“Through experimentation and collaboration, … we will help develop best practices for disclosing AI use in a way that is informative, builds trust, and benefits our readers,” the newspaper’s statement continued. “At OutSFL, we remain committed to maintaining a transparent relationship with our readers by adapting to the evolving landscape of news production while safeguarding journalistic integrity.”

OutSFL will join other news organizations including Gannett and WBEZ (Chicago Public Media) in an initiative with non-profit Trusting News, aimed at fostering transparency around the use of AI in journalism. It is supported by a grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and will explore the effectiveness of in-story AI disclosures in building audience trust, according to the statement.

A disclaimer at the bottom of the announcement read: “This announcement was written in collaboration with AI, reviewed, and edited by our editorial team to meet OutSFL’s standards. We are committed to disclosing AI involvement in our content when it meaningfully impacts the reporting or creation process, ensuring transparency with our audience.”

Many LGBTQ publishers and editors continue to exercise caution regarding the use of artificial intelligence.

“As a newsroom, we have decided not to use AI for content creation, including writing articles,” said Ken Schneck, editor of the Buckeye Flame, based in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. “That said, there are various functions of our newsroom where AI is embedded, chiefly transcription, which uses predictive AI.”

“We are aware of some of the new AI tools and are evaluating their use,” said Kevin Naff, editor of the Washington Blade. “Generally speaking, I am opposed to writers using AI tools to create their stories, but there are some new uses for the technology that are appealing, such as the ability to virtually cover municipal public meetings without a reporter in the room.”

“I’ve personally used AI in data reporting,” said author and journalist Diane Anderson-Minshall. “I think a wise use of AI is in data compilation and data analysis. AI is able to look at data and see trends that the human eye maybe can’t see. You can also look at large data sets and pull them together more succinctly.  So I think mastering it and making licensing deals that allow AI to share and learn from your content is probably one of the smartest things that you could do.”

Addison Herron-Wheeler, editor in chief and co-publisher of Denver’s Out Front Magazine, has used Otter AI to transcribe interviews.

“I am still looking into the energy use implications of Otter, but I feel ethically OK about using it because it just transcribes the exact words an interview subject has said, and then we check and listen back,” Herron-Wheeler said. “And I realize with so much of Google search being AI now, that is getting used for research by some of our writers. However, I am still against the use of any AI writing, as that pulls from other folks’ existing writing, and I believe it to be a form of plagiarism in addition to not being a reliable way to write articles.”

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Volume 27
Issue 2