The winners of the 2020 Online Journalism Awards have been announced and one, in particular, stands out. Sophi Automation, an artificial intelligence website publisher, won the Technical Innovation Serving Digital Journalism award, proving that there are very few industries where AI will not have an impact. Sophi is used by digital properties owned by Canada's national newspaper The Globe and Mail. It is responsible for curating 99% of published content, analyzing how each publication is likely to contribute to subscriber numbers and ad revenue. Before she can get to work, Sophi is trained by The Globe and Mail editorial team to understand which stories are relevant and where they should reside. Once a certain number of parameters have been set, you can start creating stories without any additional input.
Work together
"We had to build a system that our newsroom could easily understand so they could practice and trust the algorithm," the project's bounty page said. “Sophi was built in close collaboration with our newsroom, who tested it and provided constant feedback via a Slack channel and regular meetings. The newsroom is still working with a version of Sophi as a decision support analytics tool, as publishers still maintain the top three article packs on our home page and sales page. They also have the ability to override autonomous decisions made by Sophi. "Rather than replacing journalists, the goal is for Sophi to free them up to explore more ambitious stories. While artificial intelligence is great for producing simpler pieces, more detailed reporting always requires human input. Who knows how much, though? It will be time before AI can tackle these types of stories as well.