With more than 30 years experience covering technology, Fast Company global technology editor Harry McCracken demystifies the current role of AI in newsrooms and media outlets.
Speaking at Collision in Toronto, Harry (pictured above) said that AI is the “biggest thing since the internet in terms of its impact on the world”.
“And clearly, AI is way less predictable than the internet. Even the people who created this stuff don’t fully understand why it works, and why it fails,” the editor added.
Harry spoke about the importance of critical thinking with AI, and how journalists play an important role in that process: “I’m really glad that journalists exist, because the people who create [AI] are never going to give you a well-rounded vision of the pros and cons, and potential pitfalls. Particularly because it’s just a challenge for them to anticipate in a lot of cases.”
“These very large tech companies roll out stuff and, in some cases, have been horrified by what it does once they’ve rolled it out – with the current example being Google telling people to put glue on their pizzas, and a number of other pieces of advice that the Google AI gave along those lines – and so they’ve had to go and dial that back.”
“A lot of these companies just sit there doing embarrassing things and then dusting themselves off and getting back up, and then doing the next embarrassing thing after that. Sometimes, you have to say that the emperor has no clothes, which is happening a lot these days,” Harry added.
When asked about workforce displacement, which is a common theme in AI reporting, the editor told the audience that journalists are “probably not going to be replaced by AI. But there’s a pretty good chance you might be replaced by somebody who uses AI better than you do. Again, like the internet, the journalists who spent a lot of time on the web early on, were in a better place to do well in the years to come.”
Questioned about the red lines that reporters can’t cross when it comes to using AI, Harry said “we’re not going to run any AI-generated stories right now … there’s a really good reason not to run AI-generated stories right now, which is that most of them are terrible. And making them not terrible takes longer than just doing them yourselves.”
Harry’s comments were made as part of a wider discussion on AI in journalism at Collision, which is returning to Toronto for its sixth year. Global founders, CEOs, investors and members of the media have come to the city to make deals and experience North America’s thriving tech ecosystem.
More than 1,600 startups are taking part in Collision 2024 – the highest number of startups ever at a Collision event. 45 percent of these are women-founded, and startups have travelled to Toronto from countries including Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Uruguay, Japan, Italy, Ghana, Pakistan and beyond.
In total, more than 37,800 attendees have gathered at the event, as well as 570 speakers and 1,003 members of the media, to explore business opportunities with an international audience.
739 investors are attending Collision, including Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures; and Nigel Morris, co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, as well as nine companies on the Forbes Midas List, and 12 investors from those firms.
Top speakers at Collision include:
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