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Tipping into the basics of AI: Lessons from Jonathan Soma

“It is something that people think of as being very technically advanced and very math heavy, and you have to be a fancy programmer to understand it all, or a computer science person. But it is not true. Anyone can do it”. Jonathan Soma, Knight Chair Professor of Professional Practice in Data Journalism and Director of the LEDE professional program at the University of Columbia, can be described as the person of the ‘middle ground’ for conversations regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI). Polite and mildly enthusiastic for everything that has to do with data journalism, he makes understanding AI a stroll in the sun.

It was especially sunny when we met during iMEdD international Journalism Forum 2023. He had already talked an entire day about this recent technology, having been part of the panel “AI in the newsroom: A debate on AI’s role in the media” and done a workshop for “Making and breaking AI in the newsroom“. In the garden of Piraeus 260, he shares with iMEdD how anyone can start with AI.

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