Aspen Ideas Festival: Liz Cheney laments divisiveness of modern politics

On government regulation, Stern puts it plainly: “Well, we have to do something.” She said that the optimistic view is that politicians and experts in the U.S. are already talking seriously about AI.

She said there’s a lot of progress in terms of the questions getting asked.

Berend noted that Europe is out front on AI regulation and could put in place the first major AI regulations. He said he thinks Europe could inform how the U.S. pursues AI regulation.

White asks about how the media can help the public understand these challenges, Berend said that it’s important to emphasize the people behind journalism.

He added that he thinks we could see the proliferation of “junk” on the internet, and that NBC News needs to cut through that.

“It’s all the little messaging that we can do to reinforce the fact that we are a trusted place,” Berend said.

Stern said that AI is already generating content that can roughly replicate her work, which is pushing her to think about what humans are good at. She points to reporting and voice, the latter being how people tell stories.

Berend said there is a need for generally accepted standards around synthetic media.

“It’s going to be probably determined by some mix of regulation and computing power,” Berend said.

Stern said the ability of AI to detect AI-created media is far behind the creation itself, especially around audio.

Can professionals avoid AI? Berend says no, and that journalists will need to adapt.

“We have to retool,” he said. “And there’s a lot of software and technologies that we have to invest in.”

Berend compared using AI to using Google, which any journalist can tell you is an essential part of their job.

In response to White asking about how to prepare for AI in newsrooms, Stern said The Wall Street Journal is already having conversations about how to use new tools for investigative journalism.

“We have to figure out the bounds around that, the ethical bounds around that,” Stern said.

But Berend added a warning: AI can also be a shortcut, and AI can also contain biases. He stressed it's important to vet AI to make sure it's not introducing those issues into newsrooms.

Talking on AI, Berend notes the rapid pace of the development of technologies like OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT.

Stern points to just how accessible they are. People can login, maybe pay a few bucks, and create all sorts of media, including copies of people’s voices — complete with a fake video of Stern talking about how she loves sitting in the middle seat at the back of an airplane (she, of course, does not).

Such technology, known broadly as generative AI, has exploded in popularity and availability this year.

Berend said news organizations are investing in verification teams, but that newsrooms will need their own AI to be able to detect AI-generated media.

Berend added that this is not just a challenge for newsrooms. Every job in the knowledge economy will need to confront AI challenges, he said.

Stern and Berend both noted, however, that AI could help reporters. Stern said she sees AI helping free people from repetitive tasks.

The panel kicks off with a half-decent deepfake of Hillary Clinton endorsing Ron DeSantis for president. She, of course, did not do this.

But Berend notes that people often consume this kind of content in places where it can be easy to react without having a deep look at the media.

That video, he added, is still up on Twitter.

In a subtler example, Stern shows how Samsung’s smartphones got caught filling in details on photos of the moon. Berend noted this is still a very new problem.

We're at the Wheeler Opera House for an after-hours discussion on deepfakes and the media's role in policing AI.

The discussion will feature Chris Berend, executive vice president of digital for NBCUniversal News Group and Wall Street Journal technology columnist Joanna Stern. Jenn White, host of NPR's 1A, will moderate.

"Deepfake" is a general term for synthetic media created by AI that can often look extremely realistic. A recent photo of Pope Francis in a fashionable puffer jacket went viral, only for it to be found to be fake.

Thanks for joining us. We'll have more coverage tonight.

Couric asked Cox to describe his humble upbringing in Dundee, Scotland. Cox replied that the poverty in which he was raised was like a "Damocles' sword" that has loomed over his life.

But he found a refuge in movie theaters several times a week and particularly admired the legendary Hollywood star Spencer Tracy. He joined the staff of a local theater repertory company when he was just a teen.

"I felt at home," he said. "The theater has really sustained me, and I'm so grateful to it."