AI will not replace journalists. They are the essential expert-in-the-loop

Jaemark Tordecilla, one of the leading experts on using AI among Filipino journalists, had one clear objective after reading PCIJ’s investigative report, The Making of Edgar Matobato, by PCIJ founding executive director Sheila Coronel. 

“I felt that it was a story that needed to reach more people and wondered if there was a way to transform the story into other formats like video and audio, to give it a chance to find audiences in platforms where they consume content and information,” he wrote.

The compelling and unputdownable 4,000-word piece documents the journey of a hired assassin turned whistleblower in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal campaign against illegal drugs. It explores Matobato’s redemption and the reckoning of a nation where segments of the population not only tolerated but even celebrated the killings.

Jaemark sought Sheila’s permission and for two days he experimented with generative AI to bring the investigative report to life. The result is a stirring 34-minute video that animated the chilling scenes described in the report, complete with a voiceover that shifts depending on the perspective being presented.

“I was moved watching this rendition of my piece with art and music, providing it with more emotional depth compared to just text. I hope this version reaches audiences that would otherwise not read a 4,000-word story. We need more experiments like this,” said Sheila Coronel.

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From the fear and paranoia that initially swept through some Filipino journalists about using AI, some newsrooms have since adopted AI in varying degrees, using it for tasks like transcription, summarization, photo and video editing, SEO optimization, and voice generation.

Jaemark has experimented with AI to analyze large datasets, creating tools that allow more journalists to explore government audit reports and the national budget—activities that were previously primarily undertaken by investigative teams.

But discussions continue: What are the guardrails? Newsrooms have adopted policies, but some areas remain uncharted. 

“In all AI use cases in journalism, the minimum requirement is transparency,” said PCIJ editor-at-large Karol Ilagan, whose expertise in AI lies on the other side of the spectrum. She doesn’t build tools but instead focuses her investigative journalism on scrutinizing the impact of AI use on public interest.

Karol, an assistant professor at the UP College of Mass Communications, will soon publish the paper Co-opting artificial intelligence for the public good: Challenges and opportunities for investigative journalists in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Her research shows low adoption of AI in newsrooms in Southeast Asia, highlighting “increasing the likelihood of missed opportunities given the rapid evolution of the technology.”

A buzz phrase among journalists experimenting with AI use in journalism is “human-in-the-loop” or “expert-in-the-loop.” AI can help with tasks like data analysis, content generation, or automation but a journalist is still involved to vet the information and make editorial decisions.

In Jaemark’s AI video, he is the expert on the loop. He used AI to generate images and convert text to audio but he edited the video and made editorial decisions every step of the way. 

There’s at least one nagging issue that haunts experiments on AI use for journalism, however, and it came to the fore in one PCIJ training workshop, where we gathered journalists and influencers to explore ways to innovate investigative journalism. 

In one session, it was suggested that AI presents an opportunity to make newsrooms more sustainable. By delegating certain tasks to AI, costs can be reduced, allowing smaller newsrooms to survive. Journalists can focus on more critical work, such as investigative journalism.

There was a quick reaction from one of the participants: “Pero may mawawalan ng trabaho (But there are people who will lose their jobs).”

Karol’s research reflected the same worry about the potential impact on jobs, as well as concerns about copyright infringement,  misinformation, and algorithmic bias. 

It’s a difficult question to answer, said Howie Severino, one of the country’s most trusted journalists and chairman of PCIJ’s board of editors. Howie is former VP at GMA Network and is now a consultant with GMA Integrated News. He helped draft GMA-7’s AI policy.

“One could say that the Matobato video that Jaemark created probably would not get done if not for the AI tool,” he said. “Something like that would not even be commissioned.”

I discussed it with Jaemark, too, and he said it well in his introductory note in the AI video: “For many newsrooms with limited resources and shrinking headcounts, those jobs never existed in the first place, and so no job displacement would take place at all.”

That much is clear. PCIJ had no prior plans to produce a video from the investigative report.

Another AI expert on the PCIJ board, data analyst and software developer Dominic “Doc” Ligot, compared AI use to how photography threatened painting once. “AI becomes art,” he said. Photography was eventually embraced by art. 

Finally, I also needed to speak with PCIJ artist Joseph Luigi Almuena, who has animated PCIJ’s investigative reports. His talent is unmatched by any AI.

Would he oppose the use of AI to produce the work he creates? I was surprised by his response.

First, AI companies steal artists’ works and store them in the memory of AI, he said matter-of-factly. But he is more open to the use of AI than I expected. 

He said the first thing he would ask is: “Saan siya gagamitin? At para kanino (What is the AI image for? And who is it for)?”

Will it serve public good? 

The proliferation of AI images also challenges artists to innovate, Luigi said.

He proceeded to talk about existing technological tools that artists are now using to protect their intellectual property from AI companies.

PCIJ is releasing Jaemark’s AI-generated video on the same day that Media Nation gathers journalists and civil society organizations for important conversations about the future of Philippine media. 

This year’s theme is “Journalism is dead. Long live journalism.” Jaemark will lead a session on AI use.

Let us know what you think!