By Michael Dibie
In a bid to play a strategic role and help draft an AI ethics code that will guide the country’s path into new uncharted territory, the Center for Journalist innovation and Development, (CJID) has announced its completed work to soon inaugurate its AI Ethics Advisory Committee drawn from all leading minds in the country. The announcement was made by CJID, CEO, Dapo Olorunyomi at its inaugural Journalism, and AI Conference held in Abuja.
He said the gathering was to draw attention to the big community challenge of what values will define GAI era? According to Olorunyomi, there are already scores of AI use cases in journalism.
“From news aggregation, transcription, translations, content moderation and personalization, immersive storytelling, claims extractor for fact checkers, investigating known subjects, graphic designing [e.g Microsoft designer, Adobe’s Firefly or Dall-E3], sentiment analysis, and human resource as well as accounting tasks that can help us do our jobs faster and cheaper, but we must not lose sight of the vivid fears that GAI will also allow misinformation and disinformation spread faster even as they assume far more credible and believable appearance” he added.
He noted that in the past ten years, CJID has kept the simple mission of helping the journalism ecosystem in Nigeria make sense of the digital transition which had nevertheless completely renatured the professional landscape the way we knew it.
“Taking three channels as our pathway, we sought to help the industry rebuild its awareness, knowledge, and response to the architecture of news coverage, news distribution, and the financing of journalism” he said.
The CJID CEO also reiterated that, the center has become a leader in designing knowledge products and services that offered a modest response to the weathering push from the digital onslaught.
The event which was also to showcase some of the tools CJID innovation and technology are building to help solve real industry problems witnessed the launch of two products, designed to help advance the substantive mission of good journalism as a project of democracy.
The launch is coming at a time when bad actors are leveraging tech innovations around the world to improve their skills and strategies, the DUBAWA Audio Platform and Chatbot represent a significant contribution to the fight against disinformation.
Head of Innovation, CJID, Monsur Hussain said while the whatsapp platform is used by most people to spread misinformation, the Dubawa chatbox has real time data that provide more reliable sources.
The Ambassador, Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium in Nigeria, Pieter Leenknegt in a goodwill message said risk cannot be overlooked in technology, adding that AI introduces challenges that cannot be overlooked. “Amidst the challenges, there are potentials, as you embark on this part of excellence, remain in the business of truth as AI can assist to facilitate your work”.
Speaking on safety measures, Vice president Africa, Luminate, Toyin Akinniyi noted that technology has in recent times improved the practice of journalism adding that AI present challenges and to adopted the process, we should prioritize safety and human rights.
“Ensure free expression of the press and protect its independence and internal vigilance is needed, hence the need to collaborate among stakeholders”.
Also speaking at the event, CEO, Daria media, Kadarie Ahmed said there should be correction in some information on the internet on various issues before using AI in other to address some anomalies. She noted some of the information given by AI are information from various sites meaning that they are not new, but what we already know.“The issue of intellectual property should also be looked into in AI. Can it also understand the style and objectives of a particular media organization and not deviate from it”?
The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) is a West African media innovation and development think-tank. Founded in 2014 as a non-governmental organisation in Nigeria, CJID over the years has been engaged in a mission to leverage journalism, innovation, and open data to promote democratic accountability for inclusive and sustainable development.
