Working Systems: 49% of news organisations have now started using AI.

This is an experimental post. I have been pulling together some simple scripts and this particular one calls to an RSS feed, provides a selectable UI and then collects and summarizes each articles before exporting it to Markdown for import into Ghost. I may make use of it to share links, depending how many people unsubscribe. (It will not always be AI-heavy.)

The code is on Github if you are interested.

“It’s a feature, not a bug” – How journalists can spot and mitigate AI bias
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism - 08/01/25
When ChatGPT first emerged in 2022, newsrooms were cautious about using it. Three years later, things have moved on quickly. According to WAN-IFRA’s latest AI survey, 49% of news organisations have now started using AI. But half still express concern about the ethical challenges it raises.

Hertz' AI System That Scans for "Damage" on Rental Cars Is Turning Into an Epic Disaster
Futurism - 07/29/25
Rental car company Hertz is using AI to check cars for damage after they're returned. Customers have complained that the system is charging them hundreds of dollars for phantom dings. Other rental companies are investing in similar damage-detection AI software.

Frontiers | Subsidized news-media innovation: outputs, outcomes, and impact
Frontiers - 07/25/25
The news industry finds itself in a funding crisis. In response to this crisis, news media (old and new) as well as policy makers and many researchers have heralded innovation as the remedy. Denmark, epitomizing the Democratic Corporatist media model, has been an integral part of the system since 2014.

Only outputs can be automated
The Product Picnic - 07/20/25
Companies are cutting headcount because they think AI can make up the difference, says Steve Farrugia. He says managers think they can get away with this because they have redefined their expectations from individual contributors to be entirely centered around outputs. He argues that design is the process through which those necessary outputs become defined.

The Newspapers Using Generative AI to Surface Restaurant Reviews
Medium - 07/20/25
Chowbot is a chatbot you can ask to give you recommendations for where to eat in the San Francisco Bay area.

This newsletter is hand-curated, but the summaries accompanying each link are created with HuggingFace.