{"id":12331,"date":"2024-06-14T16:33:24","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T16:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=12331"},"modified":"2024-06-14T16:33:24","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T16:33:24","slug":"early-lessons-from-10th-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/06\/14\/early-lessons-from-10th-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Early lessons from 10th Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

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About a month ago, we introduced a new feature called <\/span>The 10th Street Journal<\/span><\/a> that uses artificial intelligence to produce stories of public interest\u00a0 \u2014 articles about road construction, event announcements and holiday closures.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve noticed a few common themes in the first 36 articles we\u2019ve published:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. AI is hungry<\/span><\/p>\n

Six stories we\u2019ve published mention events with food: \u201c<\/span>a welcome reception featuring hors d\u2019oeuvres<\/span><\/a>,\u201d \u201c<\/span>refreshments will be served<\/span><\/a>,\u201d \u201c<\/span>snacks will be provided<\/span><\/a>,\u201d \u201c<\/span>beer and food will be on-site for purchase<\/span><\/a>,\u201d \u201c<\/span>global food vendors<\/span><\/a>,\u201d \u201c<\/span>the ceremony, which will include dinner<\/span><\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span>seventh<\/span><\/a> is an event <\/span>about <\/span><\/i>food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(This is partly because of the humans involved. We choose press releases from official sources as our inputs for the AI. Our AI has a knack for emphasizing the food.)<\/span><\/p>\n

2. AI needs an editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a student in an Introduction to Newswriting course, AI needs editing (and sometimes, re-editing.) We\u2019ve noticed it doesn\u2019t yet have a firm grasp on AP Style, and sometimes it gets facts wrong that we need to correct. A favorite: a story about RDU\u2019s growth in the number of passengers initially referred to RDU as San Francisco International Airport.<\/span><\/p>\n

We also noted that AI tends to favor starting headlines with the word \u201cDurham.\u201d Of the first 36 articles, 16 began with Durham. (We\u2019re being more careful to avoid that repetition.)<\/span><\/p>\n

3. But \u2026 10th Street produces valuable journalism<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of our stories fall into one of several buckets:.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n