Tag Archives: UK

Why newsrooms should pay attention to AI

Artificial intelligence is helping transform many businesses, and journalism is no exception. Newsrooms are already using AI to help organize and find videos and images, transcribe interviews in multiple languages and much more. But the industry  is still trying to understand the full impact AI can have.  

Today, we are releasing a report which highlights how AI offers new powers to journalists across the reporting process, from news gathering to distribution. It also underlines how news organizations that want to explore this potential must be ready to consider and carefully monitor the ethical and editorial implications of these new technologies.

This research is the result of Journalism AI, a year-long collaboration between Polis, the international journalism think tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Google News Initiative, to educate newsrooms about the potential offered by AI-powered technologies through research, training and networking.

Newsrooms around the world are experimenting with AI, and responses to the Journalism AI survey came from 71 media organizations in 32 countries. Publishers, editors and reporters shared their detailed thoughts on the potential of AI for the news industry, how it is impacting their organizations and the risks and challenges involved with this new wave of technological innovation. 

The findings make it clear that journalism should pay attention to AI, which has the potential for wide-ranging and profound influence on how journalism is made and consumed. 

On one side, AI technologies promise to free up time for journalists to work on the more creative aspects of the news production, leaving tedious and repetitive tasks to machines. At a time when the news industry is fighting for economic sustainability and for the public’s trust, it’s easy to see why this promise is highly attractive.

On the other side, via personalization and smart recommendations, AI can help the public cope with news overload, connecting them in a convenient way to credible content that is relevant, useful, and stimulating for their lives.

Newsrooms vary in their AI strategies and implementations, the challenges they’ve experienced and the way it’s changing the way they work and how they approach their business structure. 

Overall, respondents are optimistic about the positive impact that AI can bring, as long as journalists retain their ethical and editorial values and adapt to the new challenges—such as algorithmic bias and the rise of so-called “deepfakes,” in which AI is used to create fake images or videos and pass them as real. 

The report also warns against the risk of perceiving AI simply as a way to cut costs, and that it should instead be used to benefit the people who produce the journalism we consume. There are also significant concerns about a growing divide between large organizations with the resources to take advantage of the potential offered by AI, and smaller ones that risk being left behind.

With AI, the news industry has an opportunity to continue to reinvent itself for the information needs and behavior of people in our data-driven era. But with these new powers come responsibilities to maintain quality, increase editorial diversity and promote transparency of the systems they create. 

Take a read through the Journalism AI report to see the full findings of how media organizations view AI, and what’s next for the industry. 

Google Ad Grants help a U.K. nonprofit save lives

Editor’s note: Today is World Mental Health Day, a day run by the World Health Organization with the aim of breaking down the stigma of mental health and drawing attention to resources and organizations available to help people cope. One of those organizations is Samaritans, which is a recipient of Google Ad Grants. 

Every six seconds, someone contacts Samaritans in need of support. And for the more than half a million people we reach each year, our more than 20,000 volunteers are here.

Founded in 1953, Samaritans is a U.K.-based organization dedicated to making sure fewer people die by suicide. We provide more than 20,000 volunteers over the phone, by email and face to face. My team manages the digital side, including search, social media, video and email outreach to raise awareness and connect with people who need our services. 

For over 13 years, my team has been a recipient of Google Ad Grants, which provides eligible nonprofits with free Search ads to connect people to causes. We use Ad Grants uniquely to help two types of people: Those struggling to cope with mental health issues, and those trying to help loved ones who are struggling.

People struggling to cope often turn to Google for several reasons: to better understand their symptoms, to find resources or—at worst—with the intent of harming themselves. For some searches with intent to self-harm, Google has a feature that surfaces our help line at the top of results to provide people with resources in their time of need. 

But beyond that, there’s more we can do with ads. Our Ad Grants ads ensure that the many different ways we provide help is front and center for people in need of support. For example, when someone comes to Google struggling to cope themselves, our ads proactively offer resources to get them help and shift the focus toward ways to get better.

The Google Ad Grants program helps us save lives.

Uniquely, Search ads from Ad Grants also allow us to provide resources to people who want to help others. We run ads targeting people who are looking for information on how to start difficult conversations or how to support friends and family who might need it.

Overall, Google Ad Grants has been a critical tool in supporting our organization’s mission and connecting people to life-saving mental health resources in real time. Our free Search ads have incredible reach and help us drive measurable results in the real world, such as raising awareness of our helpline, driving donations and increasing volunteer signups. All of these results from Ad Grants enable us to serve more people in need.

Last year, our Ad Grants ads were seen 2.6 million times. More than 320,000 people, seeking either support services or expressing interest in volunteering, clicked on our ads. A key part of our success is using free Google tracking tools (such as Analytics and Conversion Tracking) to measure the impact of our ads, learn what support offerings are most desired and see firsthand in our reports how many lives we are touching. Samaritans relies on Google to help us reach hundreds of people a day who are in need and might not otherwise know our services exist. The Google Ad Grants program helps us save lives.