Scripps uses AI as a newsroom assistant, not a replacement for journalists
At E.W. Scripps, artificial intelligence isn't about creating viral content or chasing social media engagement. Instead, we've integrated AI as a powerful tool to enhance our journalism and better serve our communities.
Our approach to AI is simple: it's an assistant, not a decision-maker. The technology helps streamline certain processes, allowing our journalists to focus more time on what matters most—reporting stories that impact your daily life.
How we use AI in our newsrooms
One of our most common applications involves converting broadcast scripts into digital articles. When reporters finish their TV stories, AI helps transform those scripts into web-friendly formats. The facts, quotes and reporting all come from our journalists—AI simply helps organize the content for online readers.
"All the facts and reporting come from us; AI just helps tidy things up, so we can spend more time chasing new stories for the community," our newsroom explained.
Every piece of content processed through AI undergoes thorough review by editors and news managers before publication.
AI also helps us tackle lengthy documents more efficiently. When faced with extensive city council agendas or government reports, AI can quickly identify key highlights and provide specific page references. This allows our reporters to focus their attention on the most newsworthy elements while ensuring nothing important gets overlooked.
We also use AI as an additional quality control measure. Our scripts are run through AI systems programmed with Scripps' ethics guidelines to help identify potential issues with accuracy, fairness or bias. However, our editors still conduct their traditional reviews of all content.
Human oversight remains essential
Despite AI's capabilities, human judgment drives every editorial decision at Scripps. Our journalists remain responsible for all story choices, fact-checking and final approval of published content.
The technology saves time and provides an extra layer of assistance, but it never replaces the critical thinking, community knowledge and ethical standards that our reporters and editors bring to their work.
When you see stories on our digital platforms that were created with AI assistance, you'll find a disclosure explaining our process and confirming that journalists have verified all content for accuracy and fairness.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
