Abstract

A recent wave of enthusiasm surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) has seen many observers focus on its potential to transform journalism, as with other forms of knowledge work. This conceptual essay, however, attempts to steer the conversation away from a technocentric emphasis on applications and instead pivot to the fundamental but overlooked issue of normativity: in this case, what should AI actually do to help fulfill journalism’s broader democratic aims? Building our analysis on Rasmus Kleis Nielsen’s approach that emphasizes one essential thing that journalism just might do for democracy—namely, provide accurate, accessible, diverse, relevant, and timely news about public affairs—we argue that journalistic AI could be normatively imagined and evaluated with a similar focus on simplicity and dose of democratic realism. In connection with three primary stages of newswork—information gathering, selection and production, and distribution and consumption—we explain how journalistic AI not only can work but also should work in the service of accuracy, accessibility, diversity, relevance, and timeliness. Ultimately, by placing normativity at the center of this analysis, our goal is to explore how AI might be oriented to enhance how news performs in each of these domains and thus make a pragmatic difference for journalism and democracy.

摘要

最近围绕人工智能 (AI) 的热情浪潮已经看到许多观察家关注它改变新闻业的潜力，就像其他形式的知识工作一样。然而，这篇概念性文章试图将对话从以技术为中心的应用重点转移开，而是转向基本但被忽视的规范性问题：在这种情况下，人工智能实际上应该做什么来帮助实现新闻业更广泛的民主目标？我们的分析基于 Rasmus Kleis Nielsen 的方法，该方法强调新闻业可能为民主做的一件重要事情——即提供准确、可访问、多样化、相关和及时的公共事务新闻——我们认为新闻人工智能可以被规范地想象和评估同样关注简单性和民主现实主义。可以工作，但也应该在服务准确性、可访问性、多样性、相关性和及时性方面工作。最终，通过将规范性置于该分析的中心，我们的目标是探索人工智能如何导向以增强新闻在这些领域中的每一个领域的表现，从而为新闻业和民主带来务实的改变。