AI will not completely replace old tech - Washington experts


SEATTLE — With nearly half of the world’s businesses and other industries, including the media, using Artificial Intelligence (AI), professors at the University of Washington (UW), however, believe that AI will not completely displace old technology.

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Veteran journalist John Tomasic (left) and Anis Rahman, Ph.D. of the University of Washington
 

The reason? The human factor.

“Long form journalism is going to be a loser in the end and will become a niche product,” said Dr. Anis Rahman, assistant teaching professor at UW.

Rahman believes that AI will struggle because of the human element.

John Tomasic, a seasoned journalist and faculty member at UW Communications, admitted that several local newspapers in the US are shutting down or have shut down, among them, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Rocky Mountain News, The Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton, The South Jersey Times, The Jersey Journal, and The Hunterdon County Democrat.

“We’re in very interesting times where new publications with a small staff are earning a lot of money. The AI revolution is going to present a problem,” Tomasic said.

However, he believes that human curation and aggregation will become more important.

AI is being used in media to improve user experience, enhance content creation, and streamline operations.

The US State Department, together with the US Mission to ASEAN, and the East-West Center, organized a group of journalists from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for a coverage tour in Seattle and Washington, D.C. from October 26, to November 7, 2024.