PROPUBLICA is a non -profit editorial staff that investigates the abuse of power. Initially, this story was published in our dispatch ballot; specify Get notes from our journalists.
In February, my colleague Ken Schwenke saw Post on the Bluesky social media network o o Database is released Senator Ted Cruz, who plans to show more than 3400 grants “woken up”, was awarded the National Scientific Fund, which “promoted diversity, justice and inclusion (Dei) or an advanced propaganda war in the Neomarxist class.”
Given that Schwencke – our senior editor and news, he downloaded the data, poked and saw some grants that seemed far from the fact that the Cruz Republican called “radical nonsense”. The grants included what Schwencke considered “a very cool loud project” for the development of advanced mirror coatings for gravitational waves at Florida University, its Alma Matter.
However, the description of the grant mentioned that the project “promotes education and diversity, providing opportunities for scientific research for students at different levels of education and promoting women’s involvement and insufficient minorities.”
Schvenka thought that it would be interesting to run the data through a large linguistic model AI – one of those who nourish the chat – to understand the types of grants that made the Cruise list, and why they could be marked. He realized that there was a story story.
In this article, the song of Enelle Philip and Lisa found that “Dragnet Cruz swept numerous examples of scientific projects Finished by the National Scientific Fund, which simply acknowledged social inequalities or was completely unrelated to the socio -economic topics given by its committee. “
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Among them: a grant of $ 470,000 to study the evolution of mint plants and how they spread to the continents. As the Best Philip and Song said, the project was marked by the two specific words used in its application in NSF: “diversification”, citing plants’ biodiversity and “women”, where the application noted how the project would support a young scientist in the research team.
Another participated in the development of a device that can treat heavy bleeding. It included the words “victims” – as in the firearms – and “injuries”.
Neither the Cruz office nor the press -secretary of the Republicans of the Committee on Trade, Science and Transport responded to our requests for the article.
History has become a great example of how artificial intelligence can help journalists analyze large data volumes and try to identify models.
For the first time, we said AI models to mimic the journalist -investigation, reading each of these grants to determine whether they contain the topics that someone is looking for “uncleanness” may have noticed. And most importantly, we definitely said the models not to guess whether it is confident. (AI models are known for hallucinators and we wanted to guard it.)
For new editions for AI and readers who are interested in how it worked in practice, here’s an excerpt with the actual hint we used:
Of course, members of our employees considered and confirmed each detail before we published our history, and we called all the said people and agencies who are looking for comments that remain mandatory even in the world II.
Philip, one of the journalists who wrote the request above and the story, excitedly excitedly with potential new technologies, but also continues with care, as all our editorial staff.
“Technology has many promises in the lead and shows us in the right direction,” he told me. “But, in my experience, it still needs a lot of human supervision and check. When used properly, it can really speed up the process of understanding the big sets of information, and if you are creative with your clues and critically read the way out, it can help reveal things you may not think.”
It was just the latest PROPBLICA efforts to help AI to help make our jobs better and faster, as well as using it responsibly, ways that help our human journalists.
In 2023, in partnership with a local Salt Lake reporting partner, we used the II to help reveal Patterns of sexual disorders Among the mental health specialists, a disciplined agency for licensing, Utah. The investigation was based on a large collection of disciplinary reports that cover a wide range of potential violations.
To narrow the types of cases that we were interested in, we suggested that the II revise the documents and determine the ones that were related to sexual disorders. To help the bot do our job, we gave examples of confirmed sex rules that we were already familiar with, and the specific keywords we need to look for. Then each result was considered by two journalists who used licensed records to confirm that it was correctly classified.
Moreover During our reporting on firing at the 2022 school in Valvede, TexasPropublica and Texas Tribune have been assumed by the raw material collected during the state investigation. These included hundreds of audio and videos that were difficult to sift. The footage was not organized and clearly marked, and some were incredibly graphic and disturbing for journalists.
We used an open source AI software to reliably rewrite and help classify the material that allowed journalists to match the relevant files and restore the events of the day, showing in painstaking details as the absence of law enforcement agencies contributed to the stretter’s confrontation.
We know well that AI does not repeat the laborious work we do. Our journalists write our stories, our newsletters, headlines and trips at the top of longer stories. We also know that there is a lot in the II that you need to explore, including companies that sell their products as they train them and the risks they present.
But for us there is also the potential to use the II as one of the many reporting tools that allows us to creatively study data and consider stories that help you understand the forces that form our world.
