By Phillip Anjorin

ChatJourno, an innovative intervention from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID)’s AI-in-Journalism fellowship, is set to tackle journalists’ concerns about the inability to provide depth that broadens reader understanding, a challenge to effective reporting in Nigeria.

Four fellows, Ayomikunle Daramola and Victor Ejechi, both reporters at The Cable; Abubakar Aliyu, an SEO analyst at Wikkitimes Media; and Abasiodiong Udofia, an experienced software engineer and AI expert, collaborated to build the tool amidst worries over the need for comprehensive contexts in news reports.

70% of journalists who responded to a 2022 survey from the Pew Research Center agreed that their work would benefit from easier access to historical data and archived reports, while earlier data from the American Press Institute revealed that 63% of readers prefer articles that provide background information on complex issues. 

“It is important that readers get to have historical perspective in reports to get the full concept of what you are passing across,” Daramola, who encouraged journalists not to rely solely on present information, said.

The idea and execution

Drawing inspiration from the in-house publication styles adopted at media platforms like Premium Times and Nairametrics, the team received technical guidance from Monsur Hussain, CJID’s innovations team lead, and mentorship from Joshua Olufemi, Dataphyte’s founder. Daramola revealed the mentorship was crucial during the development process for the ChatJourno’s Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

The tool features two primary components: a Story Retriever and Summarisation (SRS) and a Chatbot. The SRS allows journalists to input keywords related to their stories—such as a politician’s name or a specific event—and retrieve a wealth of previous reports.

Users can expand these reports for detailed insights and request concise summaries in clear, past-tense paragraphs. “It gives you loads and tons of previous reports on the subject, which you can either expand to see the full details or simply collapse by clicking on Summarise to obtain your findings in a maximum of three clear and concise paragraphs,” Daramola said.

Udofia revealed that developing a personalised machine learning model using language processing made the project more user-friendly for Nigerian journalists. “We created various models for different tasks, with the primary model focused on news retrieval. After processing the raw data, it tokenises the news to facilitate easier access, as we are concentrating on natural language processing. The model must understand human language, keywords, and search queries,” he said.

Udofia described the Chatbot as a virtual assistant for journalists, helping them brainstorm story ideas and angles while offering further summarisation options. If the initial response is unsatisfactory, users can request summaries on multiple attempts.

The team understood the competitive market the product is delving into, with the existence of Chat GPT and Meta AI, but they also identified a unique positioning. “What makes our tool unique is that it is journalism-inclined,” Daramola said. “When using ChatGPT, you can ask it something about law or programming, but our chatbot is towards journalists.” He said it guarantees specific tailoring to meet journalists’ needs, providing targeted assistance to ease their workflow rather than functioning as a general-purpose AI tool.

Existing challenges

The promising initiative is not without its limitations and worries. Daramola acknowledged pressing concerns among journalists globally regarding the use of AI in their practice, which is mainly related to data handling. However, he revealed the group’s commitment to ethical considerations surrounding data usage, saying, “We do not intend to infringe on anyone’s data.”

ChatJourno will establish partnerships with reputable newsrooms to address these concerns rather than indiscriminately collecting data to ensure that any data used is obtained with permission and is ethically sourced. The partnership will also encourage the accuracy and credibility of information that the tool generates as backstories for queries.

“The content that ChatJourno will generate will come from reliable sources that we trust, and we know most journalists in the country trust these reports because they are already fact-checked and credible,” he said. “When ChatJourno generates backstory from there, readers can also trust that where this information is coming from is genuine, and they are not misinformed.”

Udofia revealed that Nigerian news agencies’ hesitation to share their archives and articles for integration was a roadblock. However, the team prioritised data privacy while designing the tool to resolve this hindrance.

“Users can input their house style and generate a token to manage their data securely, ensuring maximum security. With this setup, users do not need to worry about fact-checking since the data retrieved is from their archives,” he said. “The tool effectively summarises this data, which users can request specific interactions based on the data provided, allowing for dynamic retrieval of relevant information beyond what has been discussed.”

What the future holds

User feedback is important as the project is still in its MVP stage when this report is written. Daramola said that several journalists from different backgrounds tested the tool before launching, and they provided valuable insights to facilitate its improvement. He said, “We  have a waitlist where we’ve put it all out, where journalists interested in our products can join, and we give them access to test our products.”

He also outlined strategies that involve both marketing and partnerships with newsrooms. He noted that they have launched on a small scale, promoting their tool through social media and engaging potential users. “We believe that when we get our funding soon, we will promote and market it on different platforms that we believe journalists mostly accumulate and use,” he explained.

However, the team is optimistic about the tool’s potential impact on journalism while acknowledging the concerns surrounding AI’s role in the industry. Udofia addressed fears that AI might replace human journalists, saying, “AI is not going to replace you; AI is just going to empower.” He elaborated on this point by stating that AI tools are designed to enhance journalistic creativity rather than diminish it. He believes that by streamlining research processes and providing valuable context, tools like ChatJourno can enable journalists to focus more on storytelling and creativity.