You are the AI Generation! (some heartfelt advice for our fresh Journalism graduates)

We call them the AI generation, but that's not completely fair: This class of 2022 chose to do the Master's in Journalism before ChatGPT was released. Still, artificial intelligence will substantially influence their future.

Yesterday, 21 Master's students at the Groningen University Department of Media Studies celebrated their graduation. This talented and skilled group of young journalists is ready to start their careers. I'm convinced they will start making an impact very soon, each in their own way. In my speech at the graduation ceremony, I couldn't resist giving them some advice about being grounded in tradition and having an open mind about ways to improve our crucial profession. And yes, that resulted in a talk in which 80% of my time was spent on the impact of artificial intelligence.

Here's what I shared with them:

Dear graduates,

You are following the footsteps of Ubbo Emmius, in 1614 the first rector magnificus of this university, and in those of Aletta Jacobs, the country's first female student in 1871 - and Nobel laureates Frits Zernike (1953) and Ben Feringa (2016). But they weren't journalists, were they? No, that's true, but what connects these people - besides being Groningers - to you is that they used their resources and knowledge for the “Greater Good.”

So what’s this Greater Good in journalism? If you ask me, it’s about connecting people through reliable and compelling information. Journalism is about protecting the powerless from the powerful, unraveling wrongs, making known what was unknown, and clarifying everything shrouded in mists. Everything to help people become stronger citizens. That is our Greater Good, and I hope you will throw yourselves into it with everything you have learned from us over the past few years. Each of you with your own approach and expertise. Each in your own style and your own specific interests. For many of you, this is already starting to work, as evidenced by the many “I've got a job” postings on LinkedIn, but for those of you who haven't yet, my time-honored magic formula always applies: your ideal job is the ultimate combination of 1) your own interests 2) your personal skills and 3) an audience that matches those first two factors. 

AI

During your Master's period, ChatGPT was born and developed. Claude, Llama, and Gemini came, as did Midjourney and Dall-E. For those who have followed my state of mind a bit, I am sure you have noticed that these developments have not left me - to put it mildly - unmoved. This man, who wrote his first byline on a traditional - fully unconnected! - typewriter, felt immediately thrilled by the options this technology could have for journalism. So, it will surprise no one that I am devoting my last few minutes with you to the intriguing world of artificial intelligence.

For as proud as you can (and SHOULD!) be about the solid journalistic foundation you have gained in the past two years, please be aware that AI is affecting our profession from all sides. With that, not only the foundation that I just mentioned has become even more crucial but indeed also your attitude towards all the AI-driven tools that are currently available. What we see happening now is that technology offers a handful of insiders, and a ton of outsiders a once-in-a-liftetime opportunity. Our market is currently lavished with tools that weren’t built for journalism (at least most of them weren’t), but will affect our profession profoundly, for the better AND the worse.

Whatever way you look at this, it’s clear that the journalism you are about to enter differs from the one that was around when you chose our Master. Please let that sink in, as Elon likes to say. The journalism you are about to enter is different from the one that was around when you chose our Master.

There’s no reason for fear or regret, but all the more for being well aware of the risks and opportunities ahead of you. It’s the world of misleading deep-fakes and of The Washington Post's AI-powered Heliograf. It’s deplorable TikTok farms in Saint Petersburg and the best support for your investigative efforts. It’s Google’s NotebookLM, and yes, it’s also chatGPT. And it’s Laio .

I’ll give you one very real example to shine a light on the endless possibilities. This morning, I visited the European Integrated Photonics Summit which is held in Eindhoven this week. I love the world of deep tech, but as someone who is educated as a historian, photonic integrated circuits still remain a complex matter to me, as I think will be the case for most of you. Thanks to the AI tools my own company created, I was able to listen to the keynotes and panel discussions and simultaneously write a story that covered not only the words I heard but also the context needed for our audience, including some first comments by some smart people in the audience. The story was ready before the last speaker had left the stage. It contained the facts as well as the interpretations. It was worth reading, although I admit my reporting style remains basic and will never bring me a Tegel or Pulitzer Prize.

The practice I just described will be the standard, even in the newsrooms where you may now be working for editors who claim that nothing good can come from AI. AI won’t immediately take your job, but journalists who know how to handle this technology will. So, I have one vital piece of advice for all of you: stand up to those editors, show them what’s possible, and start looking for ways AI can advance your journalistic process. Provide a rebuttal when your chief tells you that ChatGPT is only hallucinating and OpenAI is only out there to violate their copyrights. Look for the facts without becoming blind to the risks. And show that AI, in particular, can provide context, reliable facts, and traceable sources. In the meantime, try to uncover BigTech’s black box because your audience has a right to know.

Timing

The timing of your graduation is perfect; you are the AI generation - and I am saying this as the once disconnected typewriting boomer, with confidence but also with a big chunk of jealousy. You are in the position to be much more than passive consumers of AI tools—you are the pioneers who can shape how technology will serve journalism. Imagine creating your own formulas to detect fake news or using AI to analyze vast amounts of data for groundbreaking investigative work. Even without any coding skills, the power is in your hands to redefine the future of our industry. With your Groningen-founded journalistic heart and soul, you are the ones to lead us into a better future. Take the technology in your hands before it decides what you can or can't do.

For journalism, as well as for yourselves, I hope and expect that you can start building that Greater Good we as journalists must keep working for. This requires an open mind that allows you not only to take advantage of the now rapidly available technical resources but also to help develop new tools to improve journalism and make the world a better place.

I sincerely hope you will take that opportunity, and do so in the tradition of your predecessors Ubbo Emmius, Aletta Jacobs, Frits Zernike, Ben Feringa, and all the others whose faces are brought together on the walls of this majestic university room. Be aware of your tradition, use our lessons well, and shape a future in which journalism can regain the position that a flourishing democracy dearly needs. If anyone can do it, it’s you. 

Good luck, but above all, have fun on your journey of discovery.