SANTA SUSANNA, May 1, 2024 - "We cannot think that the past was better because ‘better’ relies always on the future," AIPS president Gianni Merlo declares during the panel about AI and sports journalism at the 86th AIPS Congress on April 29. The discussion on stage touched on many important points and saw the participation of well-known guests: Juan Ignacio Gallardo - editor-in-chief of Marca, Santi Nolla - director of Mundo Deportivo, Lionel Dangoumau - editorial director of L’Equipe and Mariagrazia Squicciarini - Chief of Executive Office and Director a.i. at the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO (who connected via Zoom).

THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY With all its multiple applications and undeniable controversies, AI represents an innovation that will inevitably shape the future. But does AI really represent the death of art, imagination, and creativity? No one can truly know this, but its advent is absolutely inevitable. On this matter, Mariagrazia Squicciarini shares a brilliant detail: "AI is as smart as those using it. In fact, despite what most people may think, Artificial Intelligence does not possess the capability to act on its own, but it can only respond to human input. So the questions we ask fully shape the answers we receive, and the importance of asking the right questions is a concept that journalists should understand better than anybody else." 

AI AND FAKE NEWS- "AI is nothing more than a tool," says Santi Nolla, firmly believing that the ability to use critical thinking will help journalists survive the otherwise potentially catastrophic implications of the rise of AI. "Intellectual emotivity will truly make a difference; and sport can convey those emotions better than anything else and can narrate them through its journalists." Lionel Dangoumau also notes that, with the rise of sophisticated, accessible, and most importantly not-regulated AI tools, fake news may spread uncontrollably all over the world, "fooling, especially, those who are unable to discern truth from fabricated content," adds Gianni Merlo. Nolla fully agrees, but notes that "fake news have always existed, even centuries ago. It’s not an issue caused uniquely by AI" and in his opinion credibility, reliability and critical thinking will allow journalists to survive and thrive in this new environment.
 

THE EMOTION THAT WILL SAVE SPORT On the ethical dilemma of AI technologies applied to journalistic work, "many newspapers have been using AI as a short-term solution without realising the damage to their credibility and efficiency in the long run," says Lionel Dangoumau, warning journalists not to lose their qualities and peculiarities. He continued: "AI can only trace historical information and already published studies, but there’s nothing it can do to predict what will happen in the future." Ignacio Gallardo agrees and adds that "human emotional intelligence, passion and feeling cannot be replicated by AI’’. About this, Mariagrazia Squicciarini shares how NeuroAI is exploring human emotions and is trying to find a way to replicate them with artificial intelligence in the future. 

INTEGRATION OF AI AI is nothing more than a new kind of technology, maybe a dangerous one, but over the last century new technologies (like voice recorders, computers and internet) have been successfully integrated, helping journalists do their job. "Journalists work better nowadays thanks to technologies," says Nolla, explaining how AI may become an extremely useful tool for data collection and research in the future. 

REGULATION OF AI The advent of AI seems inevitable at this point, and we will hear more and more about its new applications. But Squicciarini explains that "regulating AI is possible. AI is not a black box and it can be controlled by you putting checkpoints in its programming." Understanding how AI actually works can help let go of misconceptions and irrational fears. 

AI EVOLUTION At the end of the panel Ignacio Gallardo says something extremely interesting: "at the end of the day we should think of AI as a little baby; it is possible that once it reaches teen age it will be able to do all the things that we now consider impossible. The brutal and scary truth is that no one knows. Just like a little baby, AI is making its first steps into the world, smelling the air, exploring with its unsteady feet all the possibilities of what is humanly (and artificially) possible. Nobody can predict what will truly happen once it will start running on steady legs. Maybe the only thing we can do is hold our breaths, say a few prayers, and hope it will become a responsible adult. Or maybe, new technologies like newborn babies are never born good or bad, but it’s always their parents (and programmers') education that turn them into responsible adults. It is our responsibility as the human race to regulate artificial intelligence and make sure it becomes a tool and support for journalists and people, instead of letting them transform into a harmful threat."