President’s Letter: How we use AI in the newsroom matters

What are you doing with AI?

This question feels like it’s everywhere all the time.

For me, I hear it almost immediately when I tell people that I run MassLive. It comes winging at me typically in a barrage like this: How is it changing journalism? Are you worried? Can you trust it? Is it overhyped?

And on and on …

One thing I learned from the initial dotcom boom is that time moves faster than you think — but it also moves slower. In other words, these tools quickly become pervasive, but how we adapt to them involves a longer transition. And we’re clearly in the early days that can be both exciting and disorienting.

That’s why it’s helpful to have guardrails at the outset. At Advance Local (MassLive’s parent company) these guiding principles come from our CEO, Caroline Harrison. The c