NEMO Kennislink uses science journalism and constructive journalism to make the impact of science and technology on society accessible. We don't think LLMs will take this over from us anytime soon. After all, it is based on a lot of new facts and insights and it presupposes knowledge of the real scientific world. Of course we can use AI tools for brainstorms, pitches, scripts, transcriptions, translations, subtitles, and even to assess whether an article meets the criteria of constructive journalism. But ultimately it is a journalist who creates the story and an editor who posts it. We compare our trade with an artisanal baker with modern equipment.
But artisanal bakeries have become rare these days. Will artisanal journalism become something for readers with a fine (and – maybe- expensive) taste? Can the public distinguish between an 'artisan' article and a ‘generated’ article? Especially if the article is the answer to a direct question people typed in? We think our journalists still are a huge asset. But we also see that the context of our work can change rapidly. If NEMO Science Museum were to develop a chatbot in addition to our journalistic website that explains why the sky is blue and how an airplane flies – would we oppose to that idea? Last year we developed such a funfact-website with science journalists. How will that be in three years? We really don’t know – that s why we will probably start a journalistic series on this topic.
Speaker: Jeroen Wigertjes (NEMO Kennislink)
