“It’s time for those who are not afraid”: Daniel Haddad talks about the impact of AI on journalism

“This is the time for those who are not afraid,” he said. Daniel Haddad, Founder and CEO of InfobaeIn SIP Connect 2024meeting of Inter-American Press Society (IAPA) was celebrated in miami (USA). “That change Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings journalism This is stronger than what the Internet, Web 2.0 and social platforms have brought. Unlike what happened when the Internet became popular, which gave the paper media industry 20 years to adapt, this time we don’t have time.

He Publisher Media leaders and experts from across the Americas attended a meeting in which the impact of AI on the industry was discussed as a central topic, particularly on issues such as content creation and distribution. “We are facing a new restructuring of the information ecosystem,” he said.

angel reminded me MafaldaCharacter of the Argentine graphic artist quinineTo express how the media industry feels right now: “When you learn all the answers, all the questions change.”

AI also comes “at a bad time in a business model,” he recalled. “The model doesn’t stop. CNN “It downsized its plant again last week – it showed photos of reports of layoffs of 100 people in the chain – and from 2004, the year Facebook appeared, to today, 2,900 media outlets have disappeared in the United States.” The crux of the matter, he said, is what is going to happen to the media in the transformation that this new technology is bringing.

Infobae CEO talks about this “Farm” Appropriate content created by journalists and journalism companies. “They pretend to look like media, but in practice they don’t employ humans. they scrape information, without paying anything, and publish Hundreds of articles are created daily with AI”. He stressed: “They do not have responsible editors but they have plenty Programmatic Advertising,

He also explained how The change that AI will bring to online searchescan harm the media with its instant summaries. “Who will pay for good journalism? Who will pay for quality journalism? Will any investor go to the media today? I bring you more questions than answers,” he warned.

After differentiating between the unviable model of traditional newspapers versus commercialization Data-Driven Media -“Infobae is a data company,” he defined-, angel He described his experience of his surroundings, which made a Our AI tool, ScribNews. “I’m not here to sell it, we built it for ourselves. We can’t give every journalist in our newsroom a person to transcribe their audio, challenge them to sharpen their thoughts, help them with tough tasks. But I also don’t want our professionals to have to waste time highlighting typography or listening to an hour of the Republican Convention to find one piece of information. It does Scribnews: An assistant we’ve made available to each of our writers and editors So that they can do better journalism.”

He also talked about the cultural experience within the newsroom. At first, people resisted the introduction of AI into their workflow. Some people didn’t even trust the spelling and grammar checker, he recalled; others said they would never use AI because they didn’t need it.

They became familiar as soon as they understood one key fact: “AI does not replace the work of journalists”Haddad said. “I want to underline this,” he said.

Technology, he said, helps delegate repetitive tasks and allow writers and editors to continue doing “strategic work.” They will be able to improve their relationships with sources, develop better communication with the user, think more about how text, photos and video work together.

“A journalist is an inquisitive professional who knows how to find news,” The CEO of continued infobae. “You will tell me that a social media tracker can find what people are looking for. The obvious. But that is not the only thing that exists. There are also hidden things. Also things that people are not looking at. And the journalist finds it. Because he is the one who has the sources and the knowledge of the context.

Adoption process ScribnewsIt was easier among the older members, he admitted. Youths of their teams. “This means a lot to me because a medium has to think not about the age of the owner but about the age of the users, and infobae have a very good relationship with Audiences aged 18 to 24 and 25 to 34″. That’s why he tries to keep the editorial staff young: although Argentina —where the news site was born 22 years ago—their average age is 40 Latin America (Mexico, Colombia and Peru) And Spain His age is about 27.5 years.

intervention of angel In SIP Connect 2024 This happened on the second day of the event, in which he also took part Michael GreensponThe Leader of Licensing and Editorial Innovation the new York Times, Miguel Angel OliverPresident of the news agency EFE, Alejandra BrambillaManager of News Alliances in Latin America Google, Daniel CoronelPresident of Univision News on TelevisaUnivision; Alex MainaExecutive Editor of the The Miami HeraldAnd Alfredo Carbajaleditor in charge of national news nprAmerican Public Radio, among others.

The organisation of the tenth IAPA Forum, which took place over two days, 17 and 18 July, and featured more than 20 presentations, was led by Roberto Roque, President of IAPA; Carlos Lauría, Executive Director, and Martha Ramos, Chair of the WAN-IFRA World Editors Forum and the IAPA Gender Equality and Diversity Commission.

Photos: @NachoMartinFilms