This post was written by a real live human, but you have no way of knowing that it wasn’t written by artificial intelligence, or AI.
At least a couple of news outlets in the region are, like others around the world, using AI to do some of the reporting and writing work. And that software also is building and mining databases to do all kinds of other tasks, as well, from engineering to banking.
In short, “Ready or Not: AI Is Here to Stay.”
That’s the title of a talk Brian Conway will give to the public at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Carnegie Library of McKeesport. It’s co-sponsored by McKeesport Community Newsroom and the Point Park University Center for Media Innovation.
Conway is an independent journalist who runs Pittsburgh Independent from CMI’s Pittsburgh Downtown Media Hub, and his publication is one of the members of the Pittsburgh Media Partnership. Conway and some other members recently gave that group a presentation about AI and how far it already has come in local news. Some colleagues were surprised to learn that Conway and other local media workers already are using AI — and being used by it.
It’s something that’s evolving very rapidly, as is the human response to it.
The talk, hosted by McKeesport Community Newsroom’s project manager, Martha Rial, is subtitled “Learn how artificial intelligence will change how we live and work.”
“Anyone can use this technology in various ways — in a positive fashion,” says Conway, who plans to demonstrate how people can ask AI to do research, write copy and even create images.
It’s free to attend, but the library requires people to register first: https://www.eventkeeper.com/code/ekform.cfm?curOrg=MCKEESPT&curID=674969.
“People will come away with maybe more questions than answers,” Conway says. “Maybe me, too. We’re all learning this as we go.”
Bob, a feature writer and editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and serving as interim editor of the Pittsburgh Union Progress. Contact him at bbatz@unionprogress.com.
