Rosental Alves: “Journalism is one of the pillars of democracy.”

Brazilian specialist Rosental Alves , director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, stated that Artificial Intelligence changes the way news is produced and society's consumption habits.

"Everything in journalism is changing," Alves asserted. He added that it's a "double-edged sword," with benefits for producing more stories and more information, but with significant potential for manipulating audiences "for economic or political purposes."

He said this during his visit to Argentina, during the Innovation, Technology and Journalism series of the 5G Newsrooms program, organized by Telecom Argentina, in his presentation, entitled "Journalism in the Face of a New Media Ecosystem: After the Web, AI Changes Everything Again."

"The first step toward media survival, faced with the prospect of a new and massive disruption like the one we're seeing begin with Artificial Intelligence, is precisely to recognize the real dimensions and potential scope of the changes to come . Doing what we're doing here—talking, exploring scenarios, training, preparing—" Alves said.

"Just as journalism reacted to the first wave of epistemological shock, when it had to transform itself in response to the arrival of the Internet, it will now surely face it bravely in the era of Artificial Intelligence, further strengthening itself as a trench in the war for facts, truth, authenticity, and the defense of the public interest," highlighted the Brazilian specialist, a professor at the University of Texas in the United States.

"Artificial Intelligence cannot be ignored. The alternative is death. The media environment may change in many ways, but the best profession in the world will remain one of the pillars of democracy , a common good for the development of humanity," Alves added.

The cycle was opened by Pedro López Matheu, Director of External Communications, Sustainability and Media at Telecom Argentina (a company 40% owned by CVH, a shareholder of Grupo Clarín).

"Our challenge is to continue supporting journalistic work in the face of emerging technological frontiers, contributing to the sustainability of the media, convinced of the essential role they play in democracy," said López Matheu.

The presentation took place this Monday before more than 100 journalists in the Telecom Argentina auditorium. The panel also featured Gonzalo Abascal, editorial secretary of Clarín; and Hernán Cappielo , editor of La Nación and director of the Bachelor's Program in Journalistic Communication (UCA); moderated by journalist Julieta Schulkin.

"What has always distinguished the media isn't just information, but building a unique voice. No one read a newspaper just to know what was happening, even if it sold 600,000 copies. What existed was a voice, a habit, a ritual, a dialogue between the media and the reader, in which the reader felt it was speaking to them," Abascal said. He added: "I hope that continues. And those who will survive are those who manage to build that unique voice, so that a reader believes it is speaking directly to them."

For his part, Cappiello maintained that "the media has a shameful attitude in saying they use Artificial Intelligence tools. I think they need to say so and let their audiences know that this content was generated by AI, as part of the media literacy process." He asked Rosental if journalism will need to strengthen its investigative and source-checking methods, which Artificial Intelligence doesn't provide.

"An American journalist said that you have to treat Artificial Intelligence as if it were an intern you can give a task to, but you're not going to use it directly to publish, because it's learning. You use it to complement, to make it more efficient, but not to replace journalistic work," Alves responded.

Among the questions from the audience attending the debate, the Brazilian specialist was asked about "Trump's very strong attacks on the press, and Milei, who says we don't hate journalists enough. What recommendation would you give in the face of such a strong attack by a government actor?"

"We see a frontal attack on democracy. Trump's authoritarian tendency, which is ignoring all norms, is a very destructive process, and one of the first steps taken by these governments in the countries where it is occurring is to attack the press, so that people don't believe journalists. Furthermore, these people with authoritarian tendencies believe that journalism is unnecessary because the powerful want to speak directly to their people, without intermediaries. This is a very important moment to defend journalism. But we cannot use the same weapons they do; we rely on verified truth," Alves replied at the close of the debate.