Technology has revolutionized news, enabling information to spread instantly around the world and amplifying diverse and independent voices. Yet the same digital platforms and tools that deliver news and give rise to new voices have been used to spread viral disinformation and fracture civil society, and truth can be hard to find.
Over the past year, CHM’s Tech and the Future of News initiative decoded the impact of new technologies powered by artificial intelligence on journalism and the news industry. Convening both experts and the public, the Museum provided a forum to consider how we might shape technology to build a future of news that restores trust, builds shared understanding, preserves the vital role of the free press in our society, and empowers citizens to help shape a better future.
Below are summaries of what we learned and links to dive deeper.
CHM explored the history and continuing impact of technology on news, partisanship, and society in a CHM Live event on June 27, 2024. Professor of History and Founding Director of Purdue University's Center for Technology and American Political History Kathryn Cramer Brownell and Richard R. John, professor of history and communications at Columbia University, discussed these issues and more with moderator Alexis Madrigal, cohost of KQED's Forum and a contributing writer at The Atlantic.
Read the recap blog or watch the full video below:
Making News | CHM Live, June 27, 2024
An April 16, 2025, roundtable at the Museum provided an opportunity for historians and other scholars to share their insights with journalism leaders, news-relevant technologists, and policy professionals.
Roundtable participants included:
The wide-ranging discussion covered topics such as new ways to attract audiences; attribution issues for search results; local versus national news and the role of newsrooms in a community; the ethics and availability of AI tools; the anti-working class bias of journalists; reporting from the ground-up rather than the C-suite, and more.
Watch the video below for the full conversation or read the transcript.
Making News with Data Roundtable | April 16, 2025
The roundtable was followed by a public event where experts explained the state of journalism and the challenges presented by new technologies shaping the field, like AI and data analysis and visualization. Moderated by David Yarnold, Pulitzer Prize-winning former executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News, the panel included Marian Chia-Ming Liu, The Washington Post's projects editor of special newsroom initiatives and partnerships, Cofounder of 404 Media Jason Koebler, and Alex Reed, lead data analyst for Mapping Black California.
Read the recap blog or watch the full video below:
Making News with Data Public Event| April 16, 2025
We all consume news, and the technology behind the artificial intelligence used in the news industry today is complicated. To help people understand exactly how AI works, CHM commissioned a brief video called “Large Language Models for the Curious Beginner.” The video is available on the Museum’s YouTube channel and also appears in the first-ever Museum exhibit on the history of AI called Chatbots Decoded: Exploring AI.
Large Language Models Explained Briefly
In addition, from 2021–2023, CHM offered a series of wide-ranging convening and research activities on technology and the future of news, including roundtables in 2022 in New York and in Silicon Valley, a 2023 public CHM Live forum, and a 2023 workshop and accompanying digital report at futureofnews.computerhistory.org.
