“Not a replacement of journalists in any way”: AP clarifies standards around generative AI

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Wednesday, August 16, 2023 [“Not a replacement of journalists in any way”: AP clarifies standards around generative AI]( One new AP Stylebook entry cautions journalists to avoid “language that attributes human characteristics to these systems.” By Sarah Scire. [Could “prying open the vault” to small business loans help save local news?]( The precarity of local news outlets has left them with “little to no access to capital.” A new report imagines what state and local government, philanthropies, and community-minded institutions could do to change that. By Sarah Scire. What We’re Reading Fast Company / Chris Morris [New York Times Games looks like it has another hit on its hands with “Connections” →]( “The Times doesn’t release player numbers, but [head of games Jonathan Knight] says Connections has been the company’s most successful internal launch since Spelling Bee.” Edward R. Murrow Awards [Edward R. Murrow Award winners include two TikTok accounts this year →]( After he got the news, Jack Corbett of NPR’s winning Planet Money account [tweeted]( “when I exported the first tiktok i named the file this_is_so_dumb_theyre_gonna_fire_me.mp4.” TechCrunch / Sarah Perez [Google adds AI-powered article summaries to Search — but only for unpaywalled stories →]( Publishers can choose to block the feature by designating their content as paywalled in the Help Center. Block Club Chicago / Stephanie Lulay [Block Club Chicago debuts a new investigative team →]( The five-person team will “root out corruption, wrongdoing and inequality on the South and West sides.” “The Watch is made possible by a three-year, $1.6 million grant from the McCormick Foundation, additional funding from the Driehaus Foundation, and the unwavering support of our subscribers.” The Walrus / Soraya Amiri [“The Taliban is dangerous to me. I’m dangerous to the Taliban.” →]( “The best way to protect the lives of Afghan people is to protect journalists. If we want to know what’s happening there, we need to help journalists continue their work. Otherwise, the disaster of the 1990s, when the Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan, will repeat itself. It is already starting to.” New York Times / Clay Risen [New York Times runs obit for 98-year-old editor who died after a raid on her newspaper’s offices →]( “She said over and over again, ‘Where are all the good people to put a stop to this?’ She felt like, how can you go through your entire life and then have something that you spent 50 years of your life doing just kind of trampled on like it’s meaningless?” The Verge / Jay Peters [TweetDeck is officially becoming a paid service →]( I guess it’s technically called “XPro” now. Press Gazette / Bron Maher [Telegraph Media Group hits target of one million subscriptions →]( “More than 70% of the subscriptions are digital … It has become the third UK national newspaper company to reach a major one million milestone, after The Guardian and Financial Times which reached a million paying readers online in December 2021 and March 2022 respectively.” New York Times / Jeremy W. Peters [Reporting an anti-gay slur could put a Wisconsin local news site out of business →]( “In late April 2023, a judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that [Cory] Tomczyk had not met the legal standard for proving that the report defamed him. But that was not the end of the matter for the small and financially pinched Pilot & Review, a nonprofit that has already racked up close to $150,000 in legal bills from the case. Mr. Tomczyk has filed an appeal. And the publication’s founder and editor, Shereen Siewert, said she has no idea how she can continue paying both her lawyers and her staff of four.” New York Times / Reggie Ugwu [They review movies on TikTok, but don’t call them critics →]( “Unlike film departments at major metropolitan newspapers or national magazines, individuals on MovieTok generally don’t aspire to review every noteworthy film. And while most expressed admiration for traditional critics’ grasp of film history, they tended to associate the profession as a whole with false or unearned authority.” CalMatters / John Osborn D'Agostino and Jeremia Kimelman [CalMatters launches a wildfire-tracking dashboard →]( A wildfire map — updated daily — combines state and federal information with current and historical context. “If this is war, it seems Californians are losing, with billions spent to combat fires yet an alarming rise in lives and property lost.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( [Twitter]( / [Facebook]( [View email in browser]( [Unsubscribe]( You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab Harvard University 1 Francis Ave.Cambridge, MA 02138 [Add us to your address book](