Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — At UNC Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, students are getting a new kind of help with their reporting. The school created Rameses, an artificial intelligence chatbot designed specifically to help student journalists with research and reporting.
“We wanted to figure out where can we deploy AI to help improve the storytelling process, reduce the manual work that journalists are having to go through to, to gather information for that story and then also help them on the technical side, distribute that to a wider audience of folks,” UNC professor Anthony DeHart said.
DeHart says the goal isn’t to have AI do the journalism for students. It’s to give them another tool to help them get started, whether they’re researching a topic, brainstorming questions or working through information.
“It’s not just receiving a message and then returning a message back. It’s actually able to go through and do complex tasks,” DeHart said.
For journalism students, Rameses is becoming part of the reporting process.
“It’s not that it’s changing any part of our news gathering, our journalistic process. It’s just speeding up a lot of the research and the back end stuff,” UNC student Charlie Coastal said.
But students still have to do the work AI can’t replace, finding sources, conducting interviews and making sure the information they publish is accurate.
“So we know that the tool that it has and the information that’s getting given to us can be as verified as possible. And then also how we can use Rameses,” UNC student Emma Kane said.
And that’s an important lesson as AI becomes more common in newsrooms. Rameses is still in its beta stage, giving students and faculty a chance to figure out where AI can actually help journalists and where human judgment still matters most.
“If you attempt to engage with it in a way that is outside of journalistic ethics, it’s actually going to flag and say, ‘hey, this is not something that I’m programmed to do. This is something that you should be doing on your own,’” DeHart said.
For these future journalists, the technology may be new, but learning how to use it responsibly could soon be part of the job. The Hussman School says Rameses is currently being used as a beta resource, meaning students and faculty are also helping determine how the chatbot can best be used in journalism education.
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