NPO

AI systems don't navigate the internet the way humans do. And that changes the indexing problem in fundamental ways. Traditional search asks: which pages should a user visit? Grounding asks: what information can an AI system responsibly use to construct a response? These questions sound similar. They are not. Really interesting blog post by Microsoft Bing, on why indexing the web needs to change when answers, not rankings, are the goal. Used NotebookLM to visualize some of the key concepts. https://lnkd.in/e57UdGgn

ICYMI! Tomorrow I will host an AI in Media webinar together with Kevin Anderson, FRSA for a conversation with Brooke Hartley Moy (Infactory) and Mary Liz McCurdy (The Atlantic) on how publishers are structuring content/archives in a way AI systems can interpret, query or reuse them. We’ll look at this from both sides: how content can be transformed into structured, machine-readable data, and what that actually looks like in practice inside a newsroom like The Atlantic. 📅 23 April ⏰ 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EDT Registration link: https://lnkd.in/en_Skk-x

We’ve barely started to explore the new forms of storytelling unlocked by real-time generative AI. A new experiment, Flipbook (by Zain Shah, Eddie Jiao and Drew Carr), hints at what’s possible. An infinite visual browser. No HTML. No links. Every “page” is an image or rather 'generated pixels'. Click anywhere, and the system generates the next image in real time, diving deeper into the idea. Even the text is rendered as pixels. They even added livestreaming, turning the generated visuals into a continuous flow of animated explainers and data visualizations, generated on demand. Try it here: https://flipbook.page/ (still experimental, lots of hallucinations and slow but at some point this will render real-time and I imagine with an evaluation and RAG approach it could become more accurate)

As mentioned, no Wayfinder this week - but if you read one thing this week it probably should be the excellent summary of this year's Journalism Festival in Perugia by the Reuters Institute. https://lnkd.in/eXfv-Hq2 And I promised to highlight this great resource that Craig Silverman & Tom Vaillant launched: a curated database of more than 7,500 tools to gather and investigate open-source information. A prime example of using an LLM to unlock value for journalists! https://lnkd.in/eHEuMG-3

Missing Perugia this year because I’m in Japan with family. Amazing trade-off, but still: serious FOMO! Nice to see so many familiar names on the programme. So for everyone heading to the International Journalism Festival, these are the sessions I’d have starred: • How to test, evaluate and roll out AI tools in newsrooms: https://lnkd.in/eNTb5Edk Speakers: Rob Lang • Bargaining with Big Tech: https://lnkd.in/emivyfbf Speakers: Pablo Delgado , Ana Jakimovska , Lucy Kueng (Küng) , Caspar Llewellyn Smith • What future for journalism in the era of AI?: https://lnkd.in/e-MUeBG4 Speakers: David Caswell , Natali Helberger , Giulia Lucchese, Felix M. Simon • If AI is the new intern, what’s the new on-ramp into journalism?: https://lnkd.in/eqine25v Speakers: Jeremy Caplan , Astrid Maier , Djordje Padejski , Nikita Roy • How to save public service journalism: https://lnkd.in/eDAWy6e7 Speakers: Branko Brkic , Liz Corbin , Liz Gibbons , Jane Martinson , Alan Rusbridger • An autopsy for AI: lessons for journalism from the platform era: https://lnkd.in/emjGdaF8 Speakers: Madhav Chinnappa , Colin Crowell , Courtney Radsch, PhD , Nick Wrenn • Steal this: AI projects newsrooms actually shipped: https://lnkd.in/eu7ZP8Ge Speakers: Emily Brown , Kati Erwert , Kevin Hoffmans , Tristan Loper • When AI becomes the product: https://lnkd.in/ezHqPcMf Speakers: Charlie Beckett , Sannuta Raghu , Sophia Smith Galer , Sebastian Winther • When chatbots deliver the news: https://lnkd.in/esWNjC9W Speakers: Ginny Badanes , Katy Knight , Caspar Llewellyn Smith , Vivian Schiller • After the reader: what comes next for news in an AI-first world?: https://lnkd.in/eFmb2tRq Speakers: David Caswell , Florent Daudens , Shuwei Fang, Lucky Gunasekara What connects all of them: AI as a structural force reshaping production, distribution, discovery and the economics of journalism. Enjoy Perugia. I’ll be following from afar, with a bit of envy.

Someone finally speaks up. Shares a concern. And before they can even finish… someone else jumps in. Just like that, the moment is gone. That’s how people learn their voice doesn’t matter. And that’s how psychological safety disappears. As a Scrum Master, this is something to be very aware of. Not just facilitating the conversation, but protecting the space for it.