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AI Democrats

California Newspaper Creates AI-Powered 'News Assistant' for Kamala Harris Info (sfchronicle.com) 61

Posted by EditorDavid from the articles-into-AI dept.
After nearly 30 years of covering Kamala Harris, the San Francisco Chronicle is now letting ChatGPT do it. Sort of...

"We're introducing a new way to engage with our decades of coverage: an AI-powered tool designed to answer your questions about Harris' life, her journey through public service and her presidential campaign," they announced this week: Drawing from thousands of articles written, edited and published by Chronicle journalists since 1995, this tool aims to give readers informed answers about a politician who rose from the East Bay and is now campaigning to become one of the world's most powerful people.

Why don't we have a similar tool for Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president? The answer isn't political. It's because we've been covering Harris since her career began in the Bay Area and have an archive of vetted articles to draw from. Our newsroom can't offer the same level of expertise when it comes to the former president.
The tool's answers are "drawn directly from decades of extensive reporting," according to a notice toward the bottom of the page. "The tool searches through thousands of Chronicle articles, with new stories added every hour as they are published, ensuring readers have access to the most up-to-date information." Our news assistant is powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o mini model, combined with OpenAI's text-embedding-3-large model, to deliver precise answers based on user queries. The Chronicle articles in this tool's corpus span from April 24, 1995, to the present, covering the length of Harris' career.

This corpus wouldn't be possible without the hard work of the Chronicle's journalists.
Questions go through OpenAI's moderation filter and "relevance check" — and if it asks how to vote, "we redirect readers to appropriate resources including canivote.org..."

California Newspaper Creates AI-Powered 'News Assistant' for Kamala Harris Info More | Reply

California Newspaper Creates AI-Powered 'News Assistant' for Kamala Harris Info

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  • ... is interesting indeed (Willie Brown, etc.) A journey through public service indeed.

    Certainly more interesting than the hopey, changey, newly sprung from the head of Zeuss story that we get instead.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Rujiel ( 1632063 )

      Yeah, eerything that was so interesting from the 2020 cycle has been memory holed. Her playing the "I was that little girl" card to jab at Biden as a racist, only to gladly become his VP at the drop of a hat. Even now after all the drama it's still clear they don't even like each other, to put it mildly.

      The dems no longer even pretend to represent the working class.. they are now proudly a party that caters to college-educated white people, and are hoping they can cling back that majority of white women who

    • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by quonset ( 4839537 )

      Still far better than the clueless [imgur.com] idiot [imgur.com] .

      • Wow. I shudder to think of what ChatGPT would make of the word-salad in the second example you gave. It would turn AI into a gibbering fool.

        For context, Trump was saying something about pollution from China. And then he went on to rail against windmills and push for coal-mining and oil-drilling.

        https://www.yahoo.com/news/tru... [yahoo.com]

        • Wow. I shudder to think of what ChatGPT would make of the word-salad in the second example you gave. It would turn AI into a gibbering fool.

          For context, Trump was saying something about pollution from China. And then he went on to rail against windmills and push for coal-mining and oil-drilling.

          https://www.yahoo.com/news/tru... [yahoo.com]

          And yet, it's just one of many unhinged [tumblr.com], stumbling [snopes.com], bumbling [imgur.com], rambling [imgur.com] nonsense [imgur.com] he spouts. A clear sign of age related mental senility.

      • So after he wins the election, is there a support group for liberal midwits, or do you all plan to just scream impotently at the sky again?
        • They're all going to leave the country like they do every time they don't get their way in an election.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Entrope ( 68843 )

          They're going to refuse to certify [axios.com] his re-election, except it won't be called insurrection when they do it.

        • So after he wins the election, is there a support group for liberal midwits, or do you all plan to just scream impotently at the sky again?

          Yeah, it's called the mid-terms. That's when all the surprised Pikachu faced Democrat voters will relegate Trump to lame duck status for the remaining two years of his term.

      • go read some quotes from Trump. I don't mean the sanitized ones the NY Times prints with all the ellipsis, I mean when somebody transcribed word for word what Trump said at a speech. Start with his answer to "what will you do about Childcare" below:

        "Well, I would do that and we're sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka was sooo..uh..impactful on that issue. It's very important issue But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking abou

    • Certainly more interesting than the hopey, changey, newly sprung from the head of Zeuss story that we get instead.

      What on earth are you talking about? All anyone talks about is how she slept with Willie Brown, you included. And yet somehow you think no one talks about that? Turn your brain on.

  • So, a SF Chronicle search-engine then? (Score:3)

    by ClickOnThis ( 137803 ) on Saturday October 12, 2024 @07:06PM (#64859887) Journal

    If it's "trained" from articles in the Chronicle about Kamala Harris, then presumably it reflects the editorial stance of the publication over the time starting in 1995. Sounds useful, but like all things in the media, you shouldn't get your info from just one source.

    • Ground level truth (Score:4, Informative)

      by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Saturday October 12, 2024 @08:04PM (#64859977) Homepage Journal

      If it's "trained" from articles in the Chronicle about Kamala Harris, then presumably it reflects the editorial stance of the publication over the time starting in 1995. Sounds useful, but like all things in the media, you shouldn't get your info from just one source.

      Getting news from both sides is no longer sufficient, I'm finding that I have to literally go to ground level truth.

      An example from this morning's news, the article on the left says: "Lawsuit says Virginia is illegally purging legitimate voters off the rolls" [AP]

      Sounds pretty bad, eh?

      And the article on the right says: "Biden-Harris DOJ Sues Virginia For Removing Noncitizens From Voter Rolls" [TGP].

      Well, that sounds like a douche move from the DOJ, doesn't it?

      Right now (about 12 hours later) some of the news sites are using more informative headlines, but this morning there was a stark divide between what the right said and what the left said.

      The truth, found only by going to ground level this morning, is that Virginia has connected their voting registration to the driver's license database, and automatically removing people who identify (on their driver's license) as non-US citizen.

      The National Voter Registration Act (Section 8(c)(2)) states that there's a "quiet period" of 3 months before the election, voters can't be removed during this period. That's what the DOJ is complaining about.

      Virginia responded by saying that a Virginia state law requires that they purge non-citizens from the voting rolls.

      (There's also some claim that the driver license database is full of erroneous information and the purge will drop lots of legitimate voters.)

      (Additionally, the constitution says that voting is controlled by the states, so it's not clear to me that federal law can override a state law like this. Most of the federal control over voting was made explicit by constitutional amendment: women voting, ex-slave voting, 18 year old voting, and so on. Can someone with law experience fact check this for me?)

      It's clear to me that this is a contentious issue and there are arguable points on both sides...

      ...but boy! The rhetoric this morning made it look like both sides were being complete assholes! Oh, the outrage! That really grinds my gears! That other side is just completely unhinged...

      Be sure to go to ground level truth before you come to a decision.

      We're all living in Plato's cave here.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        The National Voter Registration Act (Section 8(c)(2)) states that there's a "quiet period" of 3 months before the election, voters can't be removed during this period.

        That's a loophole which needs fixing. It's legal in some states to register up to 30 days prior to the election. In a few, registration on election day is possible.

        So, all the non-citizens (and felons, etc.) need to do is to wait until the 90 day period is up and then register. Uncontested.

      • What do you mean by going to "ground level truth?" Do you mean this site? [ground.news] Or something else?

        I think you're right in general that the individual states control voting, not the feds. However, I assume that the Federal DOJ sued Virginia in Virginia State court, no?

        • It means that both "sides" are absolute liars and you shouldn't listen to them. You need to go and actually investigate yourself if you want to know the truth. If you don't have investigation skills, then you will never know the truth.

        • What do you mean by going to "ground level truth?" Do you mean this site? [ground.news] Or something else?

          I think you're right in general that the individual states control voting, not the feds. However, I assume that the Federal DOJ sued Virginia in Virginia State court, no?

          What do you mean by going to "ground level truth?"

          No specific site, such as the one you mentioned.

          What I meant is that when some news article talks about a lawsuit or supreme court decision, I have to go to the actual document and read it. If they say "Trump said *this*" or "Kamala said *that*", I have to see/hear the actual video. When something becomes an internet meme, I look up the actual image.

          I've found that local news reports are usually a good source of ground-level facts. The local report talks about what happened, who died, why police were called

      • if this was about voter roll accuracy Virginia would've done it months ago.

        It's stupidly obvious that this is a purge designed to eliminate likely democrat voters.

        How do I know? Because the citizenship laws target college kids who are out of state and don't have access to the paperwork needed to register. That's what all this "non citizen" nonsense is about. It's about denying college kids who want to register to vote the right to vote.

        Of course none of that is in your sources, so your points st

        • How do I know? Because the citizenship laws target college kids who are out of state and don't have access to the paperwork needed to register. That's what all this "non citizen" nonsense is about. It's about denying college kids who want to register to vote the right to vote.

          I'm not sure I understand your point here.

          College students can register to vote in (only one of) their home state or their college state.

          I'm not sure how kids out of state don't have access to the paperwork needed to register. Can't they go to the local voter registry office in their college town and register to vote?

          If Virginia is purging non-US citizens, how does that affect college students? If the student is non-US citizen, what's the difference?

          You seem to have a strong statement here, but I'm not unde

        • Do you spin this kind of misinformation on yourself or do you have a feed? College kids still count as citizens. If it affects Democrats to have voters that are ineligible removed from the voter rolls, perhaps you are admitting mass fraud is common with that party?

        • Because the citizenship laws target college kids who are out of state and don't have access to the paperwork

          I just read the VA website. They are clear on college students. There aren't any unusual barriers present. You register. You check that you are formerly registered in another state. You show an ID of residence in VA which can be your college ID or your utility bill. Dorm addresses are acceptable. Explain the scenario in detail how there is suppression of college voters who come from out of state.

  • Oh, yeah... (Score:3)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday October 12, 2024 @07:31PM (#64859919)

    There's no way THIS could go south...

    Think I'm gonna run to the store and stock up on extra popcorn.

  • "Not a thing comes to mind."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Pretty much the way I feel. Harris would need to be *extremely* bad before I wouldn't vote for her. I really despise Trump. I do wish we had instant runoff, though. Then I might consider whether Harris is worth a vote...in other than 3rd or 4th place.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Entrope ( 68843 )

        Spoiler alert: She's worse than you think. It's why she dropped out of the 2020 race well before the first primary. Like Tim Walz said, we can't afford four more years of 5+% inflation (average), wars breaking out across the world, massive increases in crime (taking us back to levels last seen when Bill Clinton was president and Dems had to tack hard to hard-on-crime rhetoric), record-setting levels of borrowing and spending, a terrible job market, and more.

  • ...useless crap generator in order to show that they are fully and completely onboard the AI hype train

  • A New York newspaper could do this about the local history of Trump and his father.

  • Sick of this Russian-owned pedophile polluting my news for a decade running.
    • 10 more years.

    • "Pedophile?" Look, Trump may have had the hots for his daughter for awhile now, but I don't think he's a pedophile. All of his sexual victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpartners appear to have been women of legal age.

  • Would some of you who are eagerly pointing out Harris' par-for-politician defects tell us what you think of Trump's steaming pile of beyond-the-pale defects?

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