ENDEAVOR

Some 800 senior media leaders – 40 percent of whom were women – from more than 70 countries and 800 companies gathered at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center last June 28-30 at the 74th World News Media Congress under the auspices of the World Association of News Publishers, or WAN-IFRA, a global organization of the world's press whose mission is “to protect the rights of journalists and publishers around the world to operate independent media.” Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the focal point of keynote presentations and panel discussions. Participants came away with the realization that, despite manifold challenges, AI presents many opportunities for innovation. Our Manila Bulletin team reached Taipei after more than a day’s delay. Originally scheduled to leave at 6:05 a.m. on Tuesday, June 27, our Philippine Airlines flight was rescheduled to a 7:05 p.m. departure, a 13-hour gap. Or so we thought. Citing the perils posed by lightning brought on by a thunderstorm, airport authorities suspended operations at the NAIA for more than three hours. Hindered by backed-up traffic, our flight left at 10:40 p.m. and landed in Taiwan at 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 28. We checked into our hotel at 2:30 a.m. Our enthusiasm was undiminished as we made our way to the huge venue that opened in 2019 but was shuttered by the pandemic for the next three years. Nangang is a quick 15-minute trip via the metrorail to the iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper at the center of Taipei City – but heavy traffic at peak hours could make it seem much farther. Taipei has its unique charm; “it’s like Hong Kong that’s not in a hurry.” The conference’s tightly packed schedule did not allow much time for exploring the city’s renowned landmarks. Nobel laureate Maria Ressa was a featured speaker at the opening plenary. She shared Rappler’s experience in asserting its freedom of expression amid adverse circumstances that were extensively discussed in her book, How To Stand Up To A Dictator: The Fight For Our Future. A social media advocate whose harrowing experiences transformed her into a staunch democracy defender, she pointed out the perils of scant regulation of AI even in the face of its own proponents’ dire warnings on its harmful effects. She warned against the untrammeled mining of private data as well as the spread of false information that are consequences of  “weaponized”  AI. Two featured speakers – Richard Gingras, vice president of News at Google; and Juan Señor, president of UK’s Innovation Media Consulting Group shared thoughtful insights. According to the organizers’ backgrounder, Gingras “oversees Google’s efforts to enable a healthy, open ecosystem for quality journalism” that is both effective and sustainable.” Señor delivered a comprehensive wrap-up as the final speaker. Gingras pointed out that AI represents a step up from machine learning that churns out tons of big data and transforms these into coherent chunks of information. He expressed preference for knowledge models over language models, emphasizing, too, the need to assess the reputation of the provider. “Generative AI has value, but no values,” he said, emphasizing the need to assess the provider’s reputation. Accountability is essential as mass media communicators could ill afford to be regarded as “silos of the elite.” Rather, they should seek to “bridge societal divides” and address the community’s general information needs. Preferring Socratic inquiry as a means of provoking deeper thought among members of the audience, Gingras issued several pointed queries, paraphrased for brevity, as follows: What are the aspects of managing information policy? What flavor of press freedom do we prefer – and how inclusive is it? What amount of government regulation is acceptable – lawful or awful? What checks and balances are needed? Are we asking the right questions? He urged his audience to “think beyond memes,” implying the need for more critical thinking to avoid a detour toward a “purely transactional regime (of) frictionless free expression.” He advocates “an independent framework” that is driven by thoughtfulness and enables digital transformation. In conclusion, he cautioned against “not learning from experience” and to accept shortcomings as these are pathways to progress. Juan Señor, delivered a tour de force as closing speaker, providing participants with a comprehensive synthesis of salient learning points. Participants gobbled up limited copies of the Innovation In News Media World Report 2023-2024 prepared by his company for WAN-IFRA. He called for unity in the news industry, stressing that generative AI, as typified by Chat GPT, is “the most transformative innovation.” He added: “What looked to be the next step in digital transformation has quickly become the transformation of digital itself.” The first imperative is not to fear, but to study the ways in which AI can work for us: “AI will never find the news, but it can summarize, repurpose, add background and context, transcribe…An AI-first newsroom can be 70 percent automation and 30 percent original journalism.” His next recommendation is “let’s get our business model right.” Deploring that the news industry “missed the search train and the mobile train, calling attention to the paradox: “(AI) is the single greatest threat to our business model but it is also the biggest opportunity.” AI threatens the further decline of search traffic in news sites as AI-powered tools become increasingly advanced in dishing out direct answers. He recommends focusing on the 30 percent of original journalism to be skillfully managed as a source of intellectual property (IP) revenues. Niche-carving is the third imperative. Building direct relationships with audiences is key. Declaring that “the era of scale and distribution through social media is over,” he called on publishers to “rediscover their target audience (and) develop business models that yield high margins, and cultivate loyal membership following…find this niche and the right business model will find you.”