Jason Spencer: An exploration of AI tools and automated content in Canadian journalism

Jason Spencer is a graduate of the Bachelor of Journalism program at Humber College in Toronto. Before returning to school to upgrade his journalism diploma to a degree in fall 2021, he was a reporter at his hometown paper, the Mississauga News, from 2012-17. He also completed academic internships at the Globe and Mail and CBC last summer.

Jason’s interest in automated journalism began with a class research paper he wrote in his winter 2022 semester on Quakebot, an algorithm the Los Angeles Times uses to produce stories on earthquakes. Quakebot made headlines in 2014 when it broke a story before any human reporter. As someone with experience covering breaking news, Jason saw the significance of Quakebot and wanted to learn more, especially what was happening in Canadian media.

Although it’s still early days here, this long-form story is a snapshot comprised of interviews with Canadian news workers and educators to get their take on automated journalism as well as artificial intelligence tools making their way into some newsrooms and classrooms.

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