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In a recent Semafor Media newsletter, Ben Smith wrote that while the media world tinkers with incremental AI changes, Sam Altman and Jony Ive are betting on a future with no screens at all. Their vision is of a world where we finally break free from our phones.
I've been intrigued by the idea of a "dumb phone" for years, so no phone at all would be even better! The idea inspired me to walk around for a day with only my (cell-enabled) Apple Watch. Turns out I may already own a pretty good "dumb phone." (Thanks, Jony Ive.)
Jokes aside, the appeal of Altman and Ive’s idea is real, tapping into a nostalgia many of us have for a world before screens took over our lives. But its seductiveness should raise alarms about what else we might need to sacrifice to achieve it. When the smartphone first came out, there was a palpable sense of excitement. The progression felt natural, it was wanted. The things that were initially built on smartphones seemed to create a greater connection with others in the world. But today, it looks like smartphones were simply a backdoor to innovate as much of the humanity out of us as possible.
Why should we think what's to come won't continue that trend? Is there anything at all that says otherwise? A big problem is that the prospect of a life integrated with AI is not super exciting, I think, to anyone—except the CEOs trying to sell AI to investors. The current vision to "apply AI to everything" is not an actual one and it continues to feel like a product in search of a market. (This also kinda explains why AI commercials seem to assume we can’t process our real lives/we're in fact "morons.") Another problem is that people don't really like peering into the "uncanny valley," so I suspect they won’t want to enter it, either. And that's a fairly big deal. The real world continues to be the best world, IMO.
BUT consumer AI is only one piece of things. Yes, it's the biggest piece—because it's the only way the purveyors can think to monetize it, and they have a LOT of money to pay back. The more interesting stuff is what the technology can enable behind the scenes. In some ways, when it comes to journalism, we're almost at the "flying car" level of possibility. But to see it, you have to look past the consumer-facing products and focus on the chasm between chatbots and AI engineering.
Beyond the chatbots, which are like sophisticated toys (or, as someone once said, a toddler with good writing skills), there are truly awesome opportunities for journalism. Just off the top of my head, here's what's currently possible: models can read gnarly PDFs and process them into structured data, so the public can finally see how their money is being spent; they can "attend" public meetings that journalists can't by synthesizing audio, video, and minutes; they can enable new revenue by improving sales prospecting.
And there’s much more still to be tested: Could AI allow media companies to build untold new businesses that pay for local and investigative journalism? What other resources might AI free up for the actual practice of journalism? Could RAG … finally make news orgs' search boxes good? (Why hasn't it done this yet??!!!111) This is where enormous potential lies—in applications that have nothing to do with eliminating jobs at scale—unless, of course, we allow that to happen.
Our work, then, is not to get distracted by, or over-rely on, the consumer AI products being sold to us. It’s to do what journalists do best—be healthy skeptics and find and build the tools that serve our core mission, leveraging this technology from the inside out. The real revolution isn’t in the chatbot; it’s in the newsroom.
And I'm gonna keep using my new "dumb phone."
Livin’ on the LIJ*
*Lenfest Institute for Journalism, that is**
Publications and news
📌 Beyond Print toolkit: A comprehensive guide for newspapers transitioning from a print subscription model to digital.
The future of local news starts here: Creators, AI, and lessons from the 2025 Reimagining Philadelphia Journalism Summit: At the Reimagining Philadelphia Journalism Summit, leaders and innovators gathered to discuss strategies for building sustainable news organizations that can serve their communities amid a rapidly changing media industry. (Hayley Slusser)
AI for local news: Five lessons from our first Lenfest AI Fellows gathering: To determine how small and mid-sized newsrooms can benefit from artificial intelligence, the Lenfest AI Collaborative convened experts to discuss building a more inclusive and effective AI ecosystem for local journalism. (David Chivers)
Elevating the future of HBCU journalism: Reflections from the 2025 Elevate Digital Media Conference: The first annual Elevate: HBCU Digital Media Conference brought together students, faculty, and industry professionals in Atlanta to foster career development and innovation for the next generation of Black media. (Justin Rushing)
Meet the Philly social media influencers making civic content resonate | Every Voice, Every Vote: Through the "Every Voice, Every Vote" initiative, Philadelphia-based social media influencers are using authentic and creative approaches to make civic content engaging for their followers despite challenges like algorithmic suppression and audience disinterest. (Jared Council)
Grants
💰 We’re pleased to announce the recipients of community listening grants from our Lenfest-Google News Initiative News Catalyst Grants open call. Learn more:
How our communities advance journalism sustainability
Become a community member (it’s free): apply here
Stay in the loop: sign up for an Institute newsletter
Interesting quotes
Consensus frays and violence rises. Technology, from sewage to AI, presents problems with no easy fixes, fostering a "Who Cares Era" of disposable content and outrage-fueled attention. Yet, authentic work and new media forms offer hope for the future.
“During the Democratic primary, his high-energy videos also inspired his supporters to create their own clips, which encouraged others to respond with even more videos. Before long, Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old assemblyman, was not just a politician. He was a vibe. He was a meme.” — Dodai Stewart, How Social Media Videos Fueled Zohran Mamdani’s Success
“Zohran Mamdani dominated the New York mayoral primary in part by cheerfully talking to anyone, including the implacably hostile New York Post.” — Ben Smith, The Showmen are Back
“With the rise of the creator economy—facilitated by flattened barriers to entry and increasing consumption (finally!) of multimedia from audio to video to new visualizations—news is being transformed not only in its content but in who is providing it. It remains early days here, I think, with my own guess continuing to be that some of the creators will morph into sustainable news organizations of the future, a few of them perhaps leaders in the field.” — Dick Tofel, Thinking About The People Formerly Known as the Press
“Just saying that SP™ has ‘blended babies’ and we should ‘stop blending babies’ doesn’t offer any actual, real, working solutions.” — Frank Elavsky, Stop calling the Super Productionizer a 'baby blender'
“The most galling ad features a woman who is hosting a “Moby Dick” book club. It’s unclear whether she has actually read any of the book. What is clear is that she doesn’t have the time or desire to think about it. No worry: Meta gives her a Melville-for-Dummies gloss on what the white whale represents (the vastness of life and meaninglessness of existence), and even suggests some conversation starters.” — Ismail Muhammad, Why Does Every Commercial for A.I. Think You’re a Moron?
“We have to do what America does best: solve the hard problem. We need to build AI that shares our values not because we’ve censored its outputs, but because we’ve shaped its core.” — Cameron Berg and Judd Rosenblatt, The Monster Inside ChatGPT
“We find widespread feelings of entrapment and regret. Many parents gave their children smartphones and social media access early in their lives — yet many wish that social media had never been invented.” — Jonathan Haidt, Will Johnson and Zach Rausch, We Don’t Have to Give In to the Smartphones
“Critics sounded the alarm about the misinformation Mr. McGee spread. But he quickly realized the backlash was key to becoming relevant online and growing an audience. Rather than shy away from it, he embraced it, and saw social media algorithms expand his reach.” — Stuart A. Thompson, He’s a Master of Outrage on X. The Pay Isn’t Great.
“Power, real power, rests on legitimacy and consent. A regime that has to deploy force at the first sign of dissent is a regime that does not actually believe it can wield power short of coercion and open threats of violence.” — Jamelle Bouie, Trump Wants to Be a Strongman, but He’s Actually a Weak Man
“Trump is the Republican Party. That is settled. His violent talk is, then, the official political communication strategy of the ruling party and its followers. And that ruling party is stripping this country for parts.” — Tressie McMillan Cottom, Political Violence Is Here, and It’s Working
“In a place where many of the estates have more than 10 toilets, nobody has quite figured out how to dispose of what comes out of them.” — Mike Baker, A Billionaire Island Where Bezos and Kushner Live Is Fighting Over Sewage
“It's so emblematic of the moment we're in, the Who Cares Era, where completely disposable things are shoddily produced for people to mostly ignore.” — Dan Sinker, The Who Cares Era
“If you think about it, what could I do after ‘Higher’ or ‘If You Want Me to Stay’?’ he asked the journalist Michael Goldberg in the early 1980s. ‘I wanted to go fishing, man. Or drive my own car. For a long time, I didn’t understand anywhere but hotel rooms, the inside of airplanes, and trying to figure out a way that I didn’t come off wrong to human beings.’” — Joe Coscarelli, Sly Stone, Maestro of a Multifaceted Hitmaking Band, Dies at 82
“Your personal brand is a lagging indicator of you doing great, meaningful work.” — Elena Verna, You don't need to build a personal brand.
Last month’s shuffle
Each month, I put together a Spotify playlist of the songs that caught my ear. Some are familiar to me, some aren’t. Some are old, some are new. The playlist tends to span eras, genres, and sounds. It’s probably not for everyone but here it is!
2024