Artificial intelligence in journalism, and other stories
Welcome to Ramin’s Space, the newsletter from science writer Ramin Skibba. You can read more about the newsletter here. If you like it, please consider subscribing and sharing this post.
In recent weeks, it’s been disheartening seeing so many journalists laid off at The Messenger, NBC News, Time magazine, Business Insider, and The Los Angeles Times, to name a few. It’s the worst bloodshed in the media industry since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. And it’s particularly harmful for shuttering local newspapers, which almost never come back once they’re gone.
Journalists and writers, like teachers and childcare workers, are underpaid despite their crucial role in our society. Every day, journalists try to report, write and edit entertaining and accurate stories for public audiences. Sure, nobody agrees with every perspective in newspapers, magazines, podcasts, and on TV, but that’s part of the point—we need myriad points of view. And as I’ve written before, journalists hold political and corporate officials accountable for their actions. If you live in a “news desert,” there’s less accountability and transparency for those authorities. For a functioning democracy, we need journalism.
Read or watch or listen to many perspectives, and scrutinize them, but support journalists and writers, too. The New York Times is flourishing and doesn’t need help. But subscribe, if you can, to many magazines, local newspapers, online outlets, and newsletters too. (I recently subscribed to Flaming Hydra, a new collective of writers publishing newsletters.)
If you’re in California, you could also support the state’s Journalism Preservation Act, or other kinds of legislation that would tax or return the advertising revenue Google and Facebook have been taking from media companies for years. Of course, the two tech titans have resisted similar legislation in Australia and Canada, but that’s inevitable. Something has to change.
Artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT and Bard, could be the next big thing, but whether it plays a role in the future of media remains to be seen. There’s certainly been a lot of hype and failed experiments, but we could see more generative AI tools in journalism, both for news writing and for artwork. That’s why my colleagues and I at the National Association of Science Writers published this statement last week, arguing how science writers should and should not use AI.
Let’s experiment with these AI technologies, but let’s do so carefully, transparently, and fairly. Writers and artists should be properly compensated for their work, and we should be wary of AI “hallucinations,” such as when ChatGPT invents events, in great detail, that never happened. Almost any journalistic task worth automating today is sufficiently complex that I’d worry about inaccuracies creeping in, and the time it takes to fact-check a chatbot’s output isn’t really shorter than the time it would take to do the work oneself.
For the foreseeable future, ChatGPT can’t do anything better than a writer or journalist can, but that won’t stop the New York Times, Insider, Semafor, and other outlets from using it, and some journalists believe ChatGPT could eventually make it easier to compile research. So as we venture into this new world, we should at least put some ethical standards in place.
On another note, I’m also looking forward to sharing a piece I’ve written (but haven’t published yet) about people tracking from space the devastation Israel’s war has wreaked in Gaza. That will have to wait till the next newsletter.
Recommended reading:
Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors
Grist magazine had the innovative idea of holding a contest for short stories that present “vivid, hope-filled, diverse visions of climate progress.” We need such stories, as try to build a better future. These are wonderfully written stories, accompanied with beautiful artwork, too. They remind me of High Country News’s speculative nonfiction series a few years ago, and I recommend checking that out as well.
Our Moon
I’ve always loved Rebecca Boyle’s space writing, and her debut book about our lunar neighbor is excellent as well, reminding us about the moon’s role in history and looking ahead toward grand plans space agencies and companies have for it. She also wrote this New York Times op-ed, which echoes many of my own thoughts about the impacts of proposed lunar activities.
Inside the Crime Ring Trafficking Sand
Did you know that sand mafias are a thing? The world’s running out of construction-grade sand (used in concrete), and organized crime is exploiting this. Fascinating Scientific American piece by David A. Taylor.
The urgent need to understand the laws of space
What can we do about all the millions of bits of junk hurtling in low Earth orbit, which constitute pollution in our near-space environment and threaten to smash into much-needed satellites? No wonder we’re seeing the rise of the formerly small field of space law. Impressive writing and reporting by my former WIRED colleague Khari Johnson.
River Guardians
In this bioGraphic feature, Melba Newsome tells the story of the Riverkeeper movement, grassroots groups trying to protect threatened waterways in the southeastern US and elsewhere. I also recommend this NYT magazine piece, where Ferris Jabr writes about Hvaldimir, the beluga whale that likely escaped from the Russian navy, then became a celebrity, and now its plight raises ethical questions about captive whales and dolphins.
No, Aliens Haven’t Visited the Earth
I do think many people have seen “UFOs,” in the sense that they’re phenomena they can’t readily explain. But we have ZERO evidence any UFO ever was an alien. That’s why I’ve only rarely written about UFOs—like when NASA published its much-awaited report last year—and I’ve steered away from amplifying obvious hoaxes about “alien autopsies” and the like. In this unique New York Magazine piece, Nicholson Baker (who usually writes novels) makes a good point, decrying government officials and journalists being “appallingly open-minded” about claimed sightings.
What I’m reading: Customs, a book of poetry by Solmaz Sharif, and Blood in the Machine, by former LA Times tech columnist Brian Merchant.
Looking back: In 2022, I wrote a piece in WIRED about the 75th anniversary of the Doomsday Clock. The team of scientists behind it announced this year that the figurative clock remains at 90 seconds till midnight, thanks to nuclear saber-rattling and wars and to worsening climate change impacts. They also recently wrote about how humanity can turn back the clock from the brink of catastrophe.
More about me: I’m a science writer and journalist based in the Bay Area. I was WIRED magazine’s space writer until December 2023, and before that I worked as a freelance writer and an astrophysicist. You can find me at my website, raminskibba.net, and on Twitter and Bluesky. I’m also former president of the San Diego Science Writers Association (SANDSWA) and on the board of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), though the opinions I express are mine alone. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you’re welcome to subscribe too.