Ethical Use Of ChatGPT For Journalists: 10 Tips On How To Use ChatGPT Properly In A Newsroom

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Artificial intelligence tools, like ChatGPT, have the potential to revolutionize journalism. But as with any new tool, there are ethical considerations to take into account. If abused, AI chatbots like ChatGPT can be misused. Here are some ways that journalists can use ChatGPT ethically.

What Does ChatGPT Stand For?

What is ChatGPT? In November 2022, OpenAI introduced Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), a cutting-edge large language model. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence platform that uses deep learning techniques and language models to generate human-like text. It is trained on a large dataset of text and can be fine-tuned for specific tasks such as conversation and language understanding.

NERD NOTE: OpenAI’s initial funding was raised from a number of investors including: Elon Musk (Co-founder),(Amazon link) Sam Altman (Co-founder), Ilya Sutskever (Co-founder),(Amazon link) Greg Brockman (Co-founder), Wojciech Zaremba (Co-founder), Adam D’Angelo (Co-founder),(Amazon link) Reid Hoffman (Co-founder),(Amazon link) Peter Thiel (Co-founder),(Amazon link) Jessica Livingston (Co-founder), Dharmash Mistry (Co-founder), Y Combinator (Initial Investor), Andreessen Horowitz, Obvious Ventures, Greylock Partners, Founders Fund, Skydance Media, Fidelity Investments, In-Q-Tel, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft.

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SEO: How To Use ChatGPT To Do SEO Research For A News Article

Newsroom staff are constantly asked to do more with less time. From adding stories to a CMS to writing social media posts and creating push alerts, there’s barely enough time to work on your news story.

For example, a common task being pushed onto the newsroom staff is SEO research. Unless you’re an SEO expert, researching search keyword for a breaking news story can be a time intensive process.

But ChatGPT can save you time and help with your SEO research. Just give an article URL or article title to the chatbot and ask it to provide SEO key phrases for your article. You’ll probably be really surprised at how the good the results are.

We asked ChatGPT to provide SEO key phrases for an article about how car touch screens are distracting drivers. Scroll down to see the results. They were great!

This is what ChatGPT gave us:

• “car touch screens”
• “driver distraction”
• “touch screen car technology”
• “touch screen car systems”
• “touch screen car infotainment”
• “touch screen car controls”
• “touch screen car safety”
• “touch screen car complaints”
• “touch screen car dissatisfaction”
• “touch screen car alternative”
• “touch screen car issues”
• “touch screen car problems”
• “touch screen car dissatisfaction survey”
• “touch screen car usability”

Hashtags: How To Use ChatGPT To Make Hashtag Suggestions

If you help manage the social media accounts in your newsroom, then you will really appreciate this tip.

Hashtags play a crucial role in connecting related topics on social media and can greatly increase the visibility of your posts. However, manually researching and compiling a list of relevant hashtags can be a tedious and time-consuming task. Fortunately, ChatGPT offers a solution by providing suggestions for relevant hashtags in mere seconds, saving you valuable time and effort.

To generate a last of hashtags, simply type in your post’s topic or keyword into the chatbot. ChatGPT will then analyze the content of your post and generate a list of hashtag suggestions based on the post’s content.

If the article has already been published, then paste the URL into the chat window and ask ChatGPT to provide you with a list of hashtags.

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Summaries: Create A Summary From A Transcript

Posting a raw transcript online isn’t an ideal user experience. Usually a transcript needs a written summary to the reader decide if they want to commit the time to read the full transcript.

Although ChatGPT can’t transcribe videos yet (use a transcription service such as Trint, Rev.com, Otter.ai, or HappyScribe), it can quickly create a summary of a transcript for you.

You can either paste a URL of a transcript into ChatGPT and ask for a summary, or give it a large chuck of text.

For example, we pasted a copy of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “I Have A Dream” speech into ChatGPT and asked it to write a summary. ChatGPT spit out this response a few seconds later.

The speaker is addressing a demonstration for freedom and civil rights, and referencing the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in the United States. He states that despite this historical progress, black Americans are still not free and face ongoing discrimination and poverty. He refers to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as a promissory note that has not been fulfilled for black Americans. He calls for immediate action and change, and urges for peaceful and dignified protest. He also acknowledges the support of some white Americans in the fight for civil rights.

This can be a helpful way to get an overview of a long conversation, or to identify key points or quotes.

Journalists can save time by using ChatGPT to generate a summary of a transcript or speech. Share on X

Headline Generation: How To Use ChatGPT To Write Better Headlines

Writing a good story headline can sometimes be as hard as writing the news story itself. Is your headline too long? What’s its SEO value? Will readers want to click on it?

If you need a second opinion, try asking ChatGPT. Just give your headline to the chatbot and ask it for some alternative suggestions.

For example, let’s start with this headline, “Ways Journalists Can Use ChatGPT Ethically”. It’s effective but, boring. Instead, ChatGPT suggested we use the headline “Ethical Use of ChatGPT for Journalists: Tips and Best Practices.” Which headline do you like better?

Try giving your news story headline to ChatGPT and then asking it to….

• shorten your headline
• add more SEO value
• make it more exciting

Compose Emails: Use ChatGPT To Write Emails

What if you could have someone else write mundane emails for you? Did your boss ask you to send out an email about employee volunteering opportunities? Need to inform your coworkers about the office food truck schedule?

GPT AI tools can help you compose detailed emails in just a few seconds. From chasing down leads to internal messages to the rest of the newsroom, ChatGPT can save journalists multiple hours per week.

Rewriting Text: Ask ChatGPT To Rewrite A Paragraph

After creating a news piece, your news organization will distribute your article to a variety of places. This may include social media sites, newsletters, and landing pages. But Google doesn’t like seeing duplicate content. Posting the same text in multiple places can even hurt your SEO.

But ChatGPT can rewrite anything for you almost instantly. Try pasting a paragraph into ChatGPT and ask it to rewrite it for you. This will create an alternate version of your text that you can use elsewhere without duplicate SEO concerns.

However, here’s a point of caution. The ability to rewrite content is a great tool, but it’s ripe for misuse. It’s a fine line between asking artificial intelligence to rewrite an article that you wrote or an article that your competitor wrote.

What if in the future someone creates an AI smart enough to tell if text was plagiarized or AI regenerated? What if your article fails that test? The consequences could be severe for both you personally and your employer.

Explain Things: Ask ChatGPT To Explain Complex Documents, Like Legal Filings Or Financial Reports, To You Like You Are a 5th Grader

There’s a lot of important information contained in documents like legal filings or financial reports, but they can be tough to understand if you’re not an expert. That’s another way that ChatGPT can be helpful.

Paste a section from a legal contract into ChatGPT and ask it to explain it to you like you are a kid. ChatGPT is a great at explaining sophisticated documents or concepts in a way that’s easy to grasp, regardless of your prior knowledge.

Try asking ChatGPT to explain complex concepts like critical race theory or quantum physics to you like you are a 5th grader.

News Sources: Suggest Sources For A News Article

Need a source for your news story? Try asking ChatGPT for suggestions. We asked it to provide sources for this article and it made 5 really good suggestions.

But here’s another area to be very cautious.

Journalists need to be extra cautious when using sources suggested by an AI. By suggesting specific sources, the AI can unknowingly be promoting bias.

Also, if you’re using ChatGPT to find sources, be transparent with them about how you found their information. Let them know that you’re using an AI-powered tool, and explain how it works. They might be both flattered and confused on why an AI recommended them.

Should Newsrooms Reveal How ChatGPT Was Used To Create An Article?

As a newsroom, do you have to disclose that you used ChatGPT for your article? This is a complicated question for your news director to decide.

In general, if you are just using AI for small tasks like providing SEO key words or hashtags, then probably not. In these instances, you are just using AI as a utility tool.

But it’s a fine line between generating hashtags and asking the AI to write paragraphs for your news story. The same AI chatbot tools can be used for both purposes.

If you are using AI to generate summaries, or large portions of text, then yes, may want to state how you are using AI writing tools. Something like, “Our newsroom uses a suite of AI tools to assist our staff description for this video was generated using AI technology.”

This will give your readers more confidence in your piece and help to build trust.

Understanding The Implications Of Using AI In A Newsroom

Journalists are always looking for innovative ways to gather news and information. With the advent of new technologies, there are more ways than ever to connect with sources and get the scoop.

But if you approach any news director about using a chatbot like ChatGPT as a journalism tool, they will likely be concerned. And they should. As a society, we never want to be at a point where an artificial intelligence is our primary news source. Also, chatbot and artirifilcal intelligence platforms like ChatGPT are far from perfect.

When used properly, chatbots like ChatGPT, can be incredible tools for journalists. Training and a strong set of guidelines will give newsroom staff the freedom to use these new AI technologies while keeping its use within approved guidelines.

But when used properly, artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, can be huge time savers and greatly help provide some relief to an overworked newsroom. AI tools can be used for everything from generating hashtags to SEO research without causing much of a journalism issue.

But as a journalist, it’s important to understand the implications of using AI in your work. AI tools can be helpful time savers, but should be used with caution. Be aware of the technologies limitations, ethical concerns, and potential biases that may be introduced by using AI-powered tools.