By Larry Felton Johnson
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a very controversial topic. On some of our articles we make use of AI. This use is carefully limited and driven by the policies outlined below.
This document, which will be updated as the Courier’s policy develops and changes, explains when we use AI, how we use it, and why we use it.
As the person in charge of setting editorial policy, I’ve decided the following things:
- AI is a powerful efficiency tool, and is particularly well suited to “boilerplate” articles (weather reports, articles taken from press releases, information from government sources)
- AI is here to stay. Once a technology as powerful as AI has been developed, the genie cannot be put back in to the bottle. What remains is to develop ethics (and in some cases regulation) in its use, and to disclose when it is being used.
- Articles written by our freelance reporters are produced in the traditional way, and the way you can tell is there will be a standard byline (“By <the author’s name>”) on articles written in the traditional manner, and on articles using AI the byline will be left off, and a disclosure line published on the bottom of the article.
- The larger societal picture of energy use by data centers is beyond the scope of our policy. Putting anything at all on the web makes use of massive data centers, so if you use email, or browse the web, you are using data centers. The increased consumption by AI is a legitimate political issue to debate, but it doesn’t come into play in my decision on the use of AI. As an analogy, I’m critical of the dependency of the U.S. on the automobile, but I still drive a car.
Articles in which AI was utilized will not have a byline, and will disclose that AI was used at the bottom of the article with the following line: Editor’s note: AI was used in the production of this article. To read about when and why we made use of AI, read our article “How, When and Why the Cobb County Courier uses AI.”
We use artificial intelligence to help prepare some of the Courier’s articles, to gather information and research (with verifiable links) on topics, and to format information for the web.
We want readers to understand where AI fits into our work and how we review the material it produces.
AI-assisted drafts are copy edited and fact-checked before publication. Responsibility for what we publish remains with the Courier.
Here are the ways we use these tools:
Preparing drafts from press releases
For some articles based on press releases, including police public information releases, we use AI to prepare a first draft from the supplied material.
That draft is a starting point. We review it for accuracy, clarity and attribution, checking it against the source material. Claims made by a police department, government agency, business or other organization still need to be identified as coming from that source.
Summarizing agendas and meeting videos
AI helps us summarize local government agendas and get an overview of meetings from videos produced by local governments.
A video summary helps us identify discussions to examine more closely. We still go back and listen to the relevant portions of the meeting to verify that the summary accurately reflects what was said and what action was taken.
Reformatting information for the web
Some public information arrives in formats that are difficult to present on a website. We use AI to help convert that material into a more accessible format.
For example, our new business listing reports draw on tables provided in PDF documents. AI can help reformat those tables for publication on the web. We check the converted material against the original.
Helping with research
We also use AI to help gather information and find links to sources, much as we would use a more sophisticated web browser.
Those results provide leads for research. We examine the underlying sources and verify information before using it in an article.
Keeping people responsible for the finished work
AI can make mistakes, omit context or produce language that sounds authoritative without being accurate. Its output requires editorial scrutiny.
Our process includes copy editing and fact-checking AI-assisted drafts before publication. These tools help with parts of the work, but the decisions about what to publish—and responsibility for getting it right—remain ours.