anon_tronOct 4, 2023
BBC News Labs

It can be difficult to search the register where MPs list the gifts they receive.

A #JournalismAI fellowship collaboration between editorial and technology teams at the BBC and The Times is trying to fix this with #GenerativeAI.

https://www.journalismai.info/blog/mp-interests-tracker-utilising-genai-for-uncovering-insights-in-the-uk-register-of-financial-interest

MP Interests Tracker: Utilising GenAI to uncover insights in the UK Register of Financial Interest — JournalismAI

For the 2023 JournalismAI fellowship, teams from The Times and BBC teamed up with a shared aspiration. Our goal was to harness the latest advancements in GenAI to make complex data, like that in the UK Register Members Financial Interest, more accessible and easier to comprehend.

JournalismAI
Oct 2, 2023 at 12:51pmWeb
Show threadSteveg58Oct 2, 2023
@BBC_News_Labs
Given the track record of Generative AI it is hard to see how that could possibly go wrong.
Show threadKate Nyhan is changing serversOct 2, 2023
@BBC_News_Labs I read the blog post and saw nothing about how they are measuring the performance of LLMs at this task, or how they are validating the results.
Also no info about the resources that would be required to catalog this data the "old-fashioned way" with human indexers using a controlled vocabulary, or a "formerly novel" approach like crowdsourced tags.
Show threadStuart Oct 2, 2023

From having processed the RMFI, yes, it is hard. It is deliberately so.

It is a shame that UK news organisations don't just commit to creating and maintaining a joint, open, shared, structured version of the RMFI where journalists clean up and tag the data using their actual domain expertise.

Show thread2xfoOct 12, 2023
@slowe
What, and pay people money? To live‽
Show threadStuart Oct 12, 2023
@RnDanger ???
Show thread2xfoOct 12, 2023
@slowe
Just trying to point out the absurdity of the tech bro position that denies humans are needed at all, especially when their systems do not function without real people working on them
Show threadStuart Oct 12, 2023
@RnDanger Ah. Thanks for the explanation. It helped.