Slide deck for webinar on AI for Text Journalism, provided by the Walkley Foundation on 12 February 2024.

1. AI and Text Journalism
TRAINER: JAMES MEESE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, RMIT UNIVERSITY
CONTACT: james.meese@rmit.edu.au

2. Our guests today:
TRAINER GUEST SPEAKERS

3. Agenda
1. Before we begin - accounts and LinkedIn Group
2. Introducing Large Language Models (LLMs)
● LLM use-cases in journalism
3. Practical elements
● AI and text articles
● AI and headlines
4. Homework
5. Q + A/ Discussion
● Lisa Main, Centre for Media Transition
● Craig McCosker, ABC Future Focus
HANDOUT - ACCOUNTS TO SET UP

4. Before we begin
Introduce yourself in the chat - and use it to ask questions.
Open the links in the chatbox and create accounts for tools we will test today:
● ChatGPT
● Bard/Gemini (Google’s AI)
Links to session recording, slides, handouts and a homework activity will be emailed
to you after the class & posted to our Closed LinkedIn Group.
Post homework in our Closed LinkedIn Group - link in chatbox
Trainer and peer-to-peer feedback. Read the Group Rules first.

5. Introducing LLMs
2

6. Beyond ChatGPT
Company Google Meta Microsoft OpenAI
Chat interface Bard/Gemini Meta AI
assistant
CoPilot ChatGPT

7. Collect
data
Develop/Train
AI Model
Release
1 2 3
Large Language Models

8. Beyond ChatGPT
Company Google Meta Microsoft OpenAI
Chat interface Bard/Gemini Meta AI assistant CoPilot ChatGPT
LLM LLamDA LLaMA2 GPT-3.5/4 GPT-3.5/4

9. How do LLMs work?
“A person is at a restaurant and would like to eat a”:
- meal (95%)
- salad (70%)
- horse (10%)
- car (.0000001%)
HANDOUT - LLM EXPLAINERS

10. Journalism Use Cases
HANDOUT - USE CASES
2

11. Case studies - Radar

12. Case studies - Bloomberg

13. Case studies - InYourArea

14. Case studies - Aftonbladet

15. Case studies - Whisper

16. Practical Element 1
AI and text articles
3

17. Registrants will receive a handout explaining basics of
prompting - and common challenges like ‘hallucinations’.
Prompt Engineering
But how does it actually work?

18. 1. Open ChatGPT.
2. Ask it to ‘Write a 100 word news article on TOPIC
(climate change, the Australian economy, etc.)’.
3. Read the response and share your thoughts in the chat.
Is it fine for publication - or would you need to change it?
Anything unexpected?
Practical - Zero Shot Prompting

19. ● Context, Instruction, Constraints.
● ‘Act as if’: Asking the LLM to ‘act’ as someone/thing.
● My prompt - Act as if you are a journalist for The Washington Post
which is based in Washington DC (context). You cover politics and
have a neutral political agenda (context). Write a 600-word news
article about Joe Biden winning the election in November 2020
(instruction). Use USA English. Your audience is mainly American, but
you also have international readers (constraints).
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY!
Practical - CIC Model

20. PROMPT: Luna, the poodle, needs to eat 2 cups of kibble a day. But
sometimes Luna's owner, Mary, and her husband, Frank, feed Luna too
much. One day, starting with a new, 12-cup bag of kibble, Mary gave Luna
1 cup of kibble in the morning and 1 cup of kibble in the evening, But on
the same day, Frank also gave Luna 1 cup of kibble in the afternoon and
twice as much in the late evening as he had given Luna in the afternoon.
The next morning, how many cups of kibble will Mary find remaining in the
bag? Think step-by-step and consider the above example as well.
HANDOUT - PROMPT ENGINEERING
Example: Few-Shot Prompting /
Chain of Thought

21. 3
Practical Element 2
AI and headlines

22. My process:
- Open Bard (Google) and find a short news article.
- Copy the article text into the LLM. An example prompt is ‘Here is text
from a news article: [TEXT]. Accept the input and wait for further
instruction.’
- Ask it ‘Can you generate the five best SEO keywords to use for this
news article?’
- Read the response and share your thoughts in the chat.
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY!
Demonstration - Bard SEO

23. - In the same window ask Bard ‘can you generate 3 SEO-friendly news
headlines based on the article text’.
- Share your thoughts in the chat.
Practical - Headlines

24. Homework
4

25. 1. Join the Closed LinkedIn Group
2. Follow instructions: HANDOUT - HOMEWORK SESSION 2
3. Post your work for trainer feedback within 4 weeks
4. Leave constructive feedback on at least one other
person’s post - within 2 weeks
5. Follow the Group Rules!
How homework works

26. - Ask an LLM of your choice to write an article about the significance of
the 2024 Olympics to your town or city.
- Feel free to devise another angle if that would work better with your
publication.
- Get the LLM to generate a headline.
- Evaluate the outputs. Are either publishable? If not, consider whether
any of the text would be of use to you in a revised article. Would you
keep anything or just start again?
- Share your thoughts in the LinkedIn Group
Article writing

27. - Develop a prompt that summarises one of your recent articles.
- Explain the editorial processes that would need to be in place to make
sure the content is accurate and unbiased.
- Are there any limitations to these processes or additional risks you
can identify?
- Share your prompt along with a brief paragraph that considers any
editorial processes and organisational risks.
Summarising Articles

28. Q&A and Discussion Time!
TRAINER GUEST SPEAKERS

29. 1. Join the Closed LinkedIn Group
2. Follow instructions: HANDOUT - HOMEWORK SESSION 2
3. Post your work for trainer feedback within 4 weeks
4. Leave constructive feedback on at least one other
person’s post - within 2 weeks
5. Follow the Group Rules!
Homework reminder!

30. AI and Investigative Journalism
Trainer: Josh Nicholas - Guardian Australia
Save the Date
Date: 14 March 2024
Time: 10.30am-12 noon
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31. Thank you!
Contact:
Walkley Foundation: Corinne Podger corinne.podger@walkleys.com
Today’s Trainer: James Meese, RMIT james.meese@rmit.edu.au