A few years ago, some newspapers were caught using relatively primitive AI apps to take stat sheets from high school basketball games to write brief story summaries. The newspapers were caught because the AI-generated material was far, far worse than what a first-year student in a college journalism class would turn out.
That was then. This is now, and my own personal experience has me wondering what this business will be like in a few years.
On April 30, I met with the head person at the Nucor Steel West Virginia construction site in Mason County. We had several minutes of small talk before we got down to business. I recorded our conversation and fed the six-minute, one-second recording into an AI transcription service. In addition to the transcript, it generated (without my asking) a summary of the conversation. This is what it gave back:
ƵJohnny Jacobs, Vice President and General Manager, discussed the ongoing construction progress of a major project, expected to be completed by the end of 2026. The project currently employs 1500 contractor teammates and 300 direct new core teammates. Steel for the project is sourced from New CoreƵs sister divisions. Equipment, including items from Europe, will arrive via truck, rail, and barge. The project will peak in workforce in the second half of the year. Local sourcing and hiring are emphasized, with a reasonable commute expected for new hires. The barge dock is under construction, and inventory will be built up ahead of operations. New CoreƵs largest steel mill in the U.S. is part of a larger investment strategy, with potential future developments in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.Ƶ
Those 129 words did what would normally be an acceptable job summarizing what Jacobs and I discussed. It needs some work. ƵNucorƵ instead of ƵNew CoreƵ is the main correction that is required, and it needs a few changes in punctuation and capitalization to conform to our norms, but itƵs a far, far better job than those laughable sports briefs those newspapers produced a few years ago.
The AI report of my meeting with Jacobs didnƵt provide any direct quotes from the conversation or much background on the $4 billion steel mill under construction, but thereƵs no reason to believe a good AI program couldnƵt do so if it were asked.
AI requires oversight, and you need to be careful with transcriptions and AIƵs interpretation of them. When I talked with Jacobs, I asked him to spell his name. I didnƵt do the same when Gov. Patrick Morrisey visited our office a few days later. Here is the AI summary of the 47-minute conversation among him, me and reporter Katelyn Aluise:
ƵGovernor Jim Justice discussed West VirginiaƵs tourism success, crediting Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby. He highlighted the stateƵs $400 million structural budget deficit and plans to address it through fiscal discipline and economic development, including microgrids and data centers. Justice emphasized the need for fiscal responsibility, citing the veto of $250,000 for LilyƵs Place and $300,000 for Green Acres due to lack of documentation. He addressed DEI initiatives, the Hope Scholarship, and food insecurity, advocating for economic development to lift standards of living and reduce reliance on programs like SNAP. He also stressed the importance of public transparency and accountability.Ƶ
AI hadnƵt caught up with the change at the Capitol yet. But the point remains: AI will change this business as it has many others.
If an advanced AI model were to watch a livestream of a Huntington City Council meeting, what kind of news summary would it produce? If it had access to police reports, what kind of crime stories would it write? AI canƵt do it now, but given the progress of the past few years, who outside the AI industry could predict when much of a reporterƵs job becomes automated?
Remember science fiction TV shows and movies from the 1950s and since that showed computers and robots taking over jobs that people did Ƶ jobs people thought couldnƵt be done by a machine? Well, given the right human inputs, AI is producing outputs that need only minor review by people to be usable.
A lot of our jobs Ƶ journalists and others Ƶ arenƵt useless yet, but the skills that will be needed will change. At the moment, AI is a step in the middle of the process. It can do summaries, but it canƵt be on the ground observing and analyzing. Some things still require person-to-person contact. AI didnƵt initiate my conversation with Jacobs. Maybe it will overcome that challenge someday. And it still makes rookie mistakes.
People in their 20s and 30s had better prepare, if that is possible.
