by Michael Rizzo 

Perhaps the two most spoken letters in the alphabet today are AI, artificial intelligence, where technology imitates the work of human beings. AI portends the future, is inspiring in the marvels it can accomplish but also instills fear in the changes it will bring. 

Journalism is not immune from AI’s reach. It’s already used to produce words and sentences derived purely from data inputted to a computer. But just as good journalism holds a special place in keeping us free, it must also stand up for the work and storytelling that only people can do to report the news. 

I’m thinking of this as journalists celebrate the Jan. 24 feast day of their patron, St. Francis de Sales. A bishop in Switzerland in the 17th century, St. Francis was a prolific writer of thousands of letters. He wrote to heads of state and ordinary parishioners communicating news of the events around him and extolling Catholicism in the face of attackers. 

St. Francis hand wrote and personalized his messages to each reader he was writing for. No word processor. No OpenAI. His style. His words. 

To some, AI is a miracle shortcut for writing and reporting without traditional journalists. But it’s far from perfect. 

At a recent conference at St. John’s University exploring AI in higher education, there were examples of what AI can do, and it was impressive. But the discussion also reminded attendees that AI should augment learning for students, the future leaders of our society, and not be the easy way out for them to complete their work. We, as educators, need to show students how to engage with AI so they can continue to apply their critical thinking skills, show their creativity, and set themselves apart from the often shallow work that AI can create as it scours its algorithms to simply produce content. 

AI has been described as soulless, lacking humanity, amoral, and purely derivative of what’s come before and not original in creating anything truly new. 

Good journalism is relational. Reporters tell the story of an event with the audience in mind. What’s the best way to engage the audience in the way my story is presented? What context do I need to explain to help people better understand the story? What perspectives do I need to provide so audiences have a fuller and balanced understanding of different points of view? 

Those different perspectives come from journalists interacting with people connected to stories through interviews. AI can’t do interviews. AI cannot be at events, in real time, gathering information, digesting it, and then telling people what they really need to know. AI needs to wait for that work to be done, by people, and only then can it regurgitate it, pretending as if it was there. 

Journalism is going through many challenges. Fake news is one of the biggest. AI has been known to disseminate false information. But is that such a surprise for something with no conscience and no ethical standards? 

Good journalists stand by their ethics like seeking truth and reporting it, minimizing harm, acting independently and being accountable and transparent — four principles of the Society of Professional Journalists. 

I discuss those principles and all these considerations about AI with my students. We also examine St. John Paul II’s words in June 2000 that journalism must be regarded as a “sacred” task, and I encourage my students to embrace that sanctity. 

I do not believe AI can match the devotion of good journalists who are dedicated and faithful to their work. Those journalists are motivated to that higher cause, including fair and unbiased reporting, because they embrace their God-given talents to tell the news honestly and in creative ways. 

After all, if news reporting was just a listing of facts, news stories would only be lines of bullet points followed by the basics of who, what, where, when, and why. 

Ultimately, AI is two-dimensional at its best. It produces flat reproductions that we see on computer screens. 

Good journalism is three-dimensional. It has information that enlightens us along with the depth of the human spirit that flows through the words of the good people doing the reporting. Those words, in turn, allow good journalists, like St. Francis de Sales did in his letters centuries ago, to tell the truth, communicate freely, and tell the public what they need to know to appropriately live their lives.