By Sandra Smith
David Plotz, CEO of the network of daily, local podcasts and newsletters City Cast, discussed the use of artificial intelligence and digital information to create real-world experiences at his lecture on Thursday, Sept. 28. The lecture was hosted by the deans of the University of Maryland College of Information Studies and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
“The explicit mission of City Cast is to make people better citizens of their cities,” Plotz said.
Plotz focuses on turning artificial intelligence and digital information into real-world experiences. Through the use of AI technologies, Plotz is able to provide society with human experiences that people crave. City Cast and Atlas Obscura are two examples of this.
“In a time of AI mania and digital creation, in a space like this or school like this, you may be overcome by a depressing feeling. This depressing feeling is that all the information you work with all day is just flat and electronic,” said Plotz.
City Cast is formatted to provide users with ways to feel more connected to their cities. Plotz said he wants people to use the information provided in their daily lives, not just mindlessly consume the information.
City Cast is available in cities including Washington, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago and more.
Previously, Plotz was the CEO of Atlas Obscura. The travel magazine was designed to show the obscurities of the world, showcasing monuments and tourist attractions across the globe. During his time with Atlas Obscura, there were about 20,000 entries submitted and edited by users and read by almost 7 million people per month.
He explained the mundane aspect of using AI in a job, saying it is simply programming and repackaging information to release to the public. The lack of human interaction is something that can not be reproduced, he said which is why creating action or change in the physical world is necessary.
Many lecture attendees worried about losing their jobs due to the rise in AI.
“I am looking for a sense of hope,” said Caro Williams-Pierce, an assistant professor in the information studies college. “It sounds like the speaker does things that bring communities together in powerful ways. Sometimes it’s easy to lose this sense of hope.”
Plotz combated ideas like this by emphasizing the fact that although AI can replicate articles written, it will never be able to replace the storytelling aspect.
Over the past 20 years, Plotz said he has seen private equity companies buy local newspapers and solely rely on technology to create the works of the paper. The quality of these papers worsened until they completely lost their value in their communities.
This happened even without AI and it will happen again, Plotz said, but there are ample ways to control its usage in a newsroom.
“The way you fight back is kind of obvious but you create great journalism,” Plotz said. “…I am so bullish about the future of journalism. I am more bullish than I’ve ever been.”
Journalism is about building connections and supporting a community; AI can be used to aid this and make work easier, but it will never fully replace it, Plotz said.
Animesh Nandan, a graduate student at UMD studying information systems and data science, said he believes that AI can be useful in everyday life.
“Everything around us is a form of data. A grocery list, excel sheets or your assignments. Everything comes under data and we are literally trapped under it,” he said.
Transforming AI and digital information into physical experiences will open up opportunities for many people and change the trajectory of the workforce.
“I want to encourage you as you think about putting these great skills that you’re learning, to consider looking for opportunities that allow you to connect these bits on screen to the world around you,” Plotz said as he ended his lecture. “To take all this data and think: how can this improve how people live in the real and physical human world?”
Featured image: David Plotz held his lecture describing the intersection of journalism and AI in Knight Hall, which houses the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. (Sandra Smith/Stories Beneath the Shell)