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CÓRDOBA (EFE).— The director of the Knight Center at the University of Austin, Texas, and digital journalism guru, Rosental Alves, stated that “artificial intelligence is going to change everything, but journalists have to embrace it.”
Alves expressed this after yesterday receiving the 2024 Press Grand Prize from the Inter-American Press Society (IAPA), in the Argentine city of Córdoba, where the organization is holding its 80th Annual Assembly.
The journalist and academic of Brazilian origin is considered one of the great gurus of the new journalism because in the nineties he already predicted the transformation that journalism was going to experience in the digital age.
“I am optimistic despite the radical changes that are coming because journalism has existed since cave times and I do not see a society without telling stories,” he said.
Alves acknowledged being “aware of the risks for humanity” that Artificial Intelligence entails, but warned that “the mistake of not understanding this revolution cannot be repeated.”
That is why he emphasized that “journalists have to embrace AI,” remembering that even in the first decade of the 21st century, many media managers still did not believe in digital journalism.
“There are no guarantees that journalism will be like it was in the last 200 years, it will be different, that is why we must walk the path of innovation,” he stated.
According to Alves, “AI is a bigger revolution than the web was, it represents enormous challenges,” he added.
The founder and director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas warned that misinformation “is the big problem of the moment because it empowers those who implement hate speech.”
“This is not new, there has always been misinformation. Now we must also combat the lack of trust in the press because there is a movement that seeks to destroy democracy,” he argued.
In this sense, he recalled that dictatorships and authoritarianisms, “from the right or the left, begin by discrediting the press.”
“Journalists used to have a monopoly on journalism, not anymore,” he highlighted at the end of his speech, which was followed by long applause from those in attendance.
The IAPA began its 80th annual meeting yesterday with the defense of the president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, for freedom of expression.
Peña signed the Chapultepec declaration – an international instrument that establishes a series of principles on freedom of expression and of the press –, congratulated the IAPA for its fight for freedom of the press and condemned censorship, stating: “Without freedom of press, we would die of suffocation.”
For four days, managers, editors and media managers from across the region have been meeting since yesterday to discuss the challenges of a profession that is undergoing a profound transformation and in the midst of alerts due to the persecution of journalists.
The president of the IAPA, Roberto Rock, stated in his opening remarks that “Latin America lives in the midst of polarization” and asked “how to deal with that” and “how to strengthen democracy.”
At SIPAsamblea
The focus of the IAPA assembly is on freedom of information and the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI).
Benefits and risks
The benefits and risks of AI will be debated by Pablo Hamada, from la Gaceta (Argentina); Claudia Báez, from Cuestión Pública (Colombia), and Carlos Eduardo Huertas, from Conectas (Colombia).
Applied AI
AI applied to journalism will be addressed by Gina Chua, from Semafor (United States); Álvaro Luizzi, from Redacciones 5G (Argentina), and Laura Puertas, from Corporación Medcom (Panama). The topic of sustainability in the industry will be discussed, among others, by Andrés D’Alessandro, from ADEPA.
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