AI: golden opportunity or existential threat
IMM opening summit, QE2 Conference Centre, London
I recently had the privilege of travelling to London for work and pleasure.
Work by way of networking at the IMM Travel Media conference. Pleasure in the form of spending quality time with family and friends.
A highlight of IMM was the opening summit, including guest speaker Graham Lovelace’s insightful low down on AI.
He started by asking for a raising of hands: did we - a room full of travel writers, PR and travel media professionals - perceive AI to be a golden opportunity or an existential threat to our careers?
As he continued, I realised how little I knew about AI.
Here's what we learned in a nutshell:
That AI is based on probability
Graham referred to Chat GPT as being an 'auto-complete on steroids', “It doesn't know anything; it searches existing data and comes up with an unreliable answer. All the answers generated are probably, not definitely, right.” It is not a search engine, therefore, you need to check everything and be aware that data generated is subject to bias.
How AI can help travel writers
Undoubtedly, AI has its place. Here’s a summary of what it can be useful tool for;
Idea generation eg. Top things to do with kids in London
Data analysis
Summaries
Jargon removal
Transcription eg. Otter
Translation
Notebook LM turns text into a podcast
But the emphasis is on you needing to check everything!
How AI threatens media
AI can erode trust and damage brand integrity if used without checking. We saw several images generated by AI searches that came back with incorrect images, such as the clock face search. All ‘clock face image’ searches show an image of a clock face showing ten to two, even if you search ‘clock face image ten past four'. Try it!
Copyright v AI
AI pays for staff and technology; it does not pay for data. As it stands, the normal copyright rules don't apply to tech giants. Graham highlighted the work of Baroness Kidron as a source for further reading, she’s raising awareness in Parliament, campaigning to change the rules and protect data from being regurgitated by AI without being paid for.
Golden opportunity
Graham finished by expressing the benefits of AI, especially if tech companies come up with smaller, ethically trained models. Human beings cannot be replaced, AI doesn't have:
Emotions
Humour
Social skills
Feelings
Experience of the human world
As writers and PR/ marketers, we’re encouraged to take a human-centred approach. Focusing on:
How you make people feel
Building emotional connection
Authentic Intelligence
Building trust and speaking your truth
Thank you Graham for this insightful talk, and IMM for the platform and space to meet and share ideas! Excited to see what comes from the acquired knowledge and new connections.
Thank you for reading. Interested in learning more about AI? Sign up for Graham’s Substack newsletter here.