The internet started the year I entered journalism school.
The year was 1994. Actually, the internet had existed for some time, but it was accessible only to big universities, NASA, and organizations like that. In 1994, you could finally get it for yourself. “Are you on the net?” was a common question in the early days of my journalism program, In a class of 20, only two or three of us were. Maybe a few more by the end of first year.
I used it to find a source for one of my first assignments—a stranger with exactly the perspective I needed for my story, who lived only a short bike ride from my apartment. I realized what an advantage technology could be. All you have to do is jump in and try it.
Fast forward 12 years. I was sports editor at a major daily newspaper in Vancouver, where the newsroom was completely print-focused. I could see how the internet was disrupting the news industry’s business model in the U.S., and I knew it wouldn’t be long before the same happened in Canada. We needed to change.
I raised this alarm with my boss, and he responded by appointing me as our newsroom’s first lead digital editor. For the next decade, my job was to try every new technological tool that came along, determine whether it could help our newsroom, and show my colleagues how. I did this through the birth of social media and the rise of the smartphone. Our newsroom pioneered real-time mobile reporting during the 2011 Stanley Cup riot.
Today I work in communications at a major public research university. I haven’t stopped experimenting with new technologies. When I saw people murmuring online about something called ChatGPT in the winter of 2022-23, I ignored it for a few days. I’ve seen tech come and go, and I have a pretty good sense of when it’s time to pay attention. With ChatGPT, the noise got to be too much, so I tried it out.
I could see things were going to be different.
Since then, I’ve been looking for ways generative AI can make my job—our jobs—easier. I’ve found a bunch. They rarely work the first time, but I don’t stop there. It takes patience and practice to master these tools, but if you’re willing to put in the work up front, they can save you so much time in the long run.
I put in the work up front. I want to save you time. But I also encourage you to roll up your sleeves and try any new technology that frightens you a little bit. Especially those ones. The more you use them, the less frightening they become.