Social feeds turned news into a rage machine. Cory Ondrejka says it’s time for a reset! Use AI to cut the noise, respect your time, and deliver journalism that actually matters.

For years, the way we consume news has been warped by engagement algorithms that reward outrage and overwhelm. With attention hijacked and trust eroding, millions have simply tuned out. But what if AI could help fix what it broke?

On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal talks with Cory Ondrejka, former Facebook and Google exec (and co-creator of Second Life), now at SmartNews, where he leads the development of NewsArc; an AI-powered app that curates the best single article on each major news event. No doomscrolling, no junk summaries, and no ragebait. Just clarity, curation, and a front page you can trust.

Why this matters now:

News avoidance is at record highs, and trust in media is cratering. NewsArc offers an alternative: a shared, AI-assisted “Daily Dozen” that highlights the most informative reads, respects journalistic integrity, and compensates publishers fairly. With LLMs used for claim-checking, not content theft, the app delivers a smarter, calmer news experience for readers who want to be informed, not inflamed.

Key Topics:

🔹 Why social feeds broke the news
🔹 How NewsArc uses AI to elevate not replace journalism
🔹 The problem with summaries and the power of “claim-level” analysis
🔹 Why a shared front page matters in a polarized world
🔹 How SmartNews compensates publishers in the LLM era

🎙 Guest:
 Cory Ondrejka | EVP, SmartNews / Creator of NewsArc
LinkedIn | smartnews.com 

📩 Enjoyed this episode?
Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.
On YouTube? Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel 🔔

For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.

🎧 Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele Musso
 🎬 Edited by the Musso Media Team
© 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

🎵 Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0

© AnyWho Media 2025

 AI engines are siphoning off billions in value from publishers. 
Bill Gross says it’s time to flip the model: charge for crawls, share revenue on answers, and build the “conversation layer” that keeps audiences engaged.

If the 2010s were about gaming Google with SEO, the 2020s are about surviving AI’s takeover of distribution. Global pageviews are down 25% in a year, roughly $100B in value shifted from websites to AI engines without compensation. Bots now outnumber human visitors by staggering ratios, and publishers are footing the bill.

On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal talks with Bill Gross, founder of ProRata and creator of Gist AI, an ethical AI search platform backed by 750 publishers. Gross makes the case for a new deal: pay publishers when AI crawls their sites, share revenue when AI uses their work, and build experiences that move beyond “ten blue links” to true conversations with audiences.

Why this matters now:

Web traffic is plunging and is down 250 billion views a day, or about $100 billion a year in lost value. Bots now scrape far more than they give back, with Google at 12:1 and some AI engines hitting 1,200:1, leaving sites like Wikipedia footing huge server bills. Bill Gross’s solution is Gist AI, a publisher-backed search platform with 750 partners, 30 million documents, and a 50/50 revenue share model.

Key Topics:
 🔹 The economics of zero-click search
 🔹 Why one-time licensing checks won’t sustain publishers
 🔹 How “sponsored supplements” could reinvent ads in AI answers
 🔹 Why publishers should stop chasing SEO tricks and focus on true value
 🔹 What Gross calls the “conversation layer” and why it’s the next big battleground

🎙 Guest:
 Bill Gross | Founder & CEO, ProRata | https://www.linkedin.com/in/billgrossidealab 

https://gist.ai/ 

https://prorata.ai/ 

📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter  and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License 

© AnyWho Media 2025

What does it take to get AI to notice your content? Scrunch AI’s Chris Andrew shares the secret sauce.

On this episode of The Media Copilot, Pete Pachal welcomes Chris Andrew, CEO of Scrunch AI, to unravel the mysteries of AI-driven search. As AI platforms increasingly summarize news without driving traffic back to publishers, the game of visibility is changing. Chris explains how Scrunch AI is helping content creators understand and optimize for "AI SEO," a new frontier that goes beyond traditional search algorithms.

Pete and Chris dive deep into the emerging concept of "SEO for Chatbots"—why AI-generated summaries are redefining content discovery, and how publishers can adapt to avoid getting buried in the noise. They also explore the uncomfortable truth: AI summaries are designed to be self-contained, reducing the need for users to click through to the original source.

If you’re a media executive, content strategist, or just curious about the shifting landscape of digital publishing, this conversation is packed with practical insights and bold predictions.

This episode covers:

🔹 AI SEO: What it is and why it's the next content battleground

🔹 The Clickless Future: How AI summaries are shifting audience behavior

🔹 Publisher Panic: Why media outlets are scrambling to adapt

🔹 AI’s Surface Area Problem: Fewer sources, fewer clicks, and what that means

🔹 Scrunch AI’s Strategy: How Chris Andrew’s platform is re-engineering content for AI   visibility

🔹 New Rules of Engagement: What publishers need to know to stay relevant

🎙 Guest: Chris Andrew -CEO of Scrunch AI     

 Follow him on LinkedIn

And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License 

© AnyWho Media 2025

AI risk and the tenacity required.

In this special episode of The Media Copilot podcast, we're diving into the seismic shifts AI is causing in digital publishing. I recently hosted a webinar on AI Risk and Resilience for Publishers, where we unpacked how AI search engines are disrupting traditional traffic flows and what that means for content creators. The implications are significant: if audiences no longer need to visit publisher platforms to get information, how do publishers maintain visibility and revenue?

To explore this challenge, I sat down with David Buttle, founder of DJB Strategies and former Director of Platform Strategy at the Financial Times. David has been at the forefront of analyzing how AI impacts media consumption, and he's developed a methodology to assess risk levels for publishers in an AI-driven world.

Joining us is Will Barker of BluConnick, a company focused on enhancing audience engagement through first-party data. Together, we discussed how publishers can create AI-resilient content strategies and maintain their audience relationships in the age of AI-generated summaries.

Key Topics Covered:

• The rise of AI-driven search and its impact on publisher traffic

• How to identify content most at risk for AI substitution

• Strategic approaches to maintain audience loyalty and engagement

• Leveraging first-party data to optimize reader experience
  

Listen in as we uncover the roadmap for resilient content in an AI-first world. Whether you're a publisher, content strategist, or media executive, this episode will equip you with the insights needed to navigate this technological shift.

And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

🎙️ Guests:

• David Buttle

  Founder of DJB Strategies

  Former Director of Platform Strategy at Financial Times

  LinkedIn Profile

  DJB Strategies Website

  
  

• Will Barker

  Manager for Customer Success at BluConnick

  LinkedIn Profile

  BluConnick Website

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License 

© AnyWho Media 2025

When chatbots summarize your reporting instead of sending audiences to your website, who really wins—and how can creators fight back?

Ahmed Malik, CEO of ScalePost, joins The Media Copilot to unpack the act of AI disintermediation. It’s a term that’s thrown around a lot, but it’s just a fancy word for when an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Perplexity writes a summary based on a topic instead of directing a person to a website.

That's the basic thing AI services do, but if you think about it, even if the user doesn't have to read the website anymore, the chatbot does. The thing is, chatbots don't look at ads, they don't buy subscriptions, and they sometimes don't even respect paywalls.

Because of this simple idea, AI search is rewriting the economics of the web. But what if media companies could push back and get paid? That’s where Malik and ScalePost come in. As a bridge between publishers and AI platforms, ScalePost helps news organizations protect their work, monetize their data, and create a dialogue with the tech companies shaping the future.

Ahmed and I  break down:

• The hard truth about how AI is siphoning traffic—and what bot activity means for the future of metrics
  

• Why evergreen content is especially vulnerable to AI disruption
  

• What ScalePost is doing to make private deals and licensing discussions possible
  

• How media companies are thinking beyond lawsuits to carve out new business models
  

• What the Ziff Davis lawsuit against OpenAI signals for the industry at large
  

Ahmed also shares insight from ScalePost’s closed-door sessions with major publishers and AI platforms—giving us a rare peek into how the media business is negotiating its future in an AI-dominated landscape.

If you’re a journalist, media executive, or content creator wondering how to stay relevant—and solvent—in the age of generative AI, you’ll want to hear this one.

-

If you’re enjoying The Media Copilot, don’t forget to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Leaving a rating or review helps more people discover the show. If you're watching on YouTube, be sure to like and subscribe for weekly episodes on how AI is reshaping media, journalism, and content creation.

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License 

© AnyWho Media 2025

Jane Barrett, Head of AI Strategy at Reuters, joins The Media Copilot to share how one of the world’s largest news agencies is actively shaping the future of AI in journalism—without crossing the line on trust.

AI is rewriting the rules of content, but who’s writing the rules for AI in newsrooms? At Reuters, Jane Barrett is making sure they’re not written for them. As Head of AI Strategy, Barrett has led one of the most ambitious and thoughtful integrations of artificial intelligence in a major newsroom—balancing innovation with editorial ethics at every step.

This week on The Media Copilot, I talk to Barrett about how Reuters went from “wait and see” to “lead and shape” when it comes to generative AI. From building new workflows to launching the Reuters AI Suite, the global news agency isn’t just experimenting—it’s operationalizing.

In our conversation, we cover:

• How Reuters got its 2,500+ journalists to embrace AI tools without fearing obsolescence
  

• Why generative video and imagery are off-limits—and what that says about editorial values
  

• The tension between using AI for speed and preserving the nuance of human reporting
  

• Why Reuters’ B2B AI Suite is less about automation and more about augmentation
  

• The hard truths about “publicly available” content and how publishers are fighting back
  

Barrett also shares the internal strategy behind launching AI products for business customers, how trust and transparency guide every deployment, and why AI shouldn’t be viewed as a newsroom shortcut—but a newsroom collaborator.

If you’ve ever wondered how legacy media can innovate without compromising its soul, this episode is a masterclass in doing just that.

—

If you’re enjoying The Media Copilot, don’t forget to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Leaving a rating or review helps more people discover the show. If you're watching on YouTube, be sure to like and subscribe for weekly episodes on how AI is reshaping media, journalism, and content creation.

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License https://filmmusic.io/song/4855-favorite

© AnyWho Media 2025

Jonathan Roberts of Dotdash Meredith unpacks how one of the largest digital publishers is adapting to AI and the changing nature of online audiences.

The media business is no stranger to disruption—but AI is changing the rules of engagement faster than most companies can respond. At Dotdash Meredith, Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Jonathan Roberts is trying to stay not just afloat, but ahead. This week on The Media Copilot, I talk with Jonathan about how one of the biggest names in digital publishing is confronting—and capitalizing on—AI’s rapid rise.

Dotdash Meredith is home to household-name brands like People, InStyle, and Investopedia. But behind the glossy covers and evergreen SEO content is a highly engineered operation—one that’s been data-forward for years. From its proprietary ad tech platform D/Cipher (built to thrive in a post-cookie world) to deep integrations with OpenAI, the company is betting on innovation as its survival strategy.

In our conversation, we cover:

• Why Dotdash leaned into its OpenAI partnership early—and how it’s paying off in real-time
  

• The evolving relationship between editorial integrity and algorithmic optimization
  

• How personalization at scale is being done without compromising trust or quality
  

• What AI agents mean for traffic, SEO, and the entire structure of online publishing
  

• Whether we’re heading toward a future where humans don’t browse websites—they just ask
  

Jonathan shares how Dotdash is adapting its product, content, and monetization models to survive in an environment where Google is no longer the gateway to the internet—and where AI summaries may be the only thing standing between your brand and invisibility.

We also talk about what’s not changing: the need for trusted, human storytelling—and the critical role publishers still play in shaping how information flows online. But how do you fund it? That’s the tension we explore.

This is a candid, smart look at the state of play in media innovation—one that pulls back the curtain on how digital publishers are rethinking their entire business to meet the moment.

—

If you’re enjoying The Media Copilot, don’t forget to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Leaving a rating or review helps more people discover the show. If you're watching on YouTube, be sure to like and subscribe for weekly episodes on how AI is reshaping media, journalism, and content creation.

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License https://filmmusic.io/song/4855-favorite

© AnyWho Media 2025

A revealing conversation with NewsGuard’s Steven Brill on trust, truth, and the battle for clean data in the AI age.  The AI era is rewriting the rules of media — but what happens when disinformation sneaks into the algorithms shaping what we see and believe?

This week on The Media Copilot, I sat down with Steven Brill, a legend in the journalism world and co-founder of NewsGuard, the company working to restore trust in news. Steven’s media legacy includes launching Court TV, creating American Lawyer magazine, and authoring bestsellers on health care, education, and much more. But his latest focus? Making sense of AI’s impact on information integrity.

In this episode, we dive into:

• The bombshell NewsGuard report exposing a Russian propaganda campaign that infiltrated AI training data
  

• What this means for platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity
  

• How to fight misinformation inside the machine
  

• Whether NewsGuard itself can stay unbiased — and how it handles critics
  

• What’s next for NewsGuard in the AI era (including an exclusive announcement: NewsGuard’s TrueNews AI, a small language model that indexes only sites NewsGuard deems “not unreliable”)
  

If you care about the future of media, credibility, and the truth itself in a world shaped by AI, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

Listen now to hear from Steven Brill on the fight to keep our information ecosystem clean — and how we all have a role to play.

Coming up: Free Webinar – April 10

I'm also hosting a live webinar on Thursday, April 10 with David Buttle, founder of DJB Strategies. We'll be taking a deep dive into AI substitution risk — how AI-powered search engines are summarizing the news, killing clicks, and reshaping publisher economics.

We'll cover:

• What types of content are most at risk
  

• Why AI search is disrupting audience engagement
  

• Tactical strategies to protect and future-proof your content business
  

Visit mediacopilot.ai to register and secure your spot.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

By using AI, hyperlocal news platform Patch expanded from 1,100 to over 30,000 communities in a matter of months. How they did it without creating slop.

This week on The Media Copilot, I sat down with Warren St. John, CEO of Patch, to explore how AI is driving this exponential growth. Patch’s AI-powered newsletters can now spin up hyperlocal updates for virtually any ZIP code in the U.S., offering a new model for personalized, community-driven journalism at scale. But what does this mean for the editorial process, and how does AI fit into a model that has already made Patch a profitable success?

In this episode, we dive into: 

• How Patch uses AI to create high-quality, hyperlocal newsletters

• Why ChatGPT can’t replicate what Patch is doing—yet

• The surprising reaction of Patch’s editorial team to this AI-driven shift

• What this level of scale means for the future of local news

• How to scale AI in media without sacrificing quality

If you're curious about how AI can empower, rather than replace, local journalism—or how media companies can harness AI to grow without diluting their editorial integrity—this conversation is a must-listen.

🎧 Tune in now to hear how Warren St. John and Patch are redefining the future of hyperlocal news.

Connect with Warren St. John - https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-st-john-b17a8788/?trk=pprof-feed

Or check out Patch: https://patch.com/ 

Don’t Miss This! Webinar on AI Substitution Risk – April 10th

If you’re interested in AI’s impact on the media, I’ve got something else for you. Join me, Pete Pachal, and David Buttle, founder of DJB Strategies, for a deep dive into AI substitution risk on April 10th.

AI-powered search engines summarize content, siphon off clicks, and threaten revenue. But what can publishers do about it? This webinar will provide a roadmap for content strategy that breaks down: ✅ Which types of content are most vulnerable ✅ Tactics to mitigate substitution risk ✅ Actionable insights to future-proof your media business

📅 Sign up now at mediacopilot.ai and get ahead of the AI curve.

And as always, if you’re enjoying The Media Copilot, I’d be grateful if you’d: ✅ Follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen ✅ Leave a rating or review—it helps more than you know ✅ Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit that notification bell 🔔

AI is reshaping the future of media. Let’s make sure it’s a future worth building.

-

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.© AnyWho Media 2025  

We're slashing the price of our AI course for PR and media professionals for one day only.

The results from the first cohort of AI for PR & Media Professionals are in. The six-week AI training course closed on Tuesday with two dozen students showing capstone projects that incorporated advanced AI techniques like automations and custom tooling, often pairing them with popular tools like Perplexity and Claude. The AI-enhanced workflows they created are going to save them hours of tedious work every week.

And now we're about to do it all again.

On March 18, the second cohort of AI for PR & Media Professionals begins. Over the course of six weeks, we're going to take a group of students from basic prompting all the way to developing their own specialized monitoring tools and tailored assistants. And there's still time for you to join.

Want more detail before signing up? That's exactly what fellow instructor Peter Bittner and I explore in this week's Media Copilot podcast. We unpack some specific lessons in the course, why they can move the needle for communications work, and what we learned from our students.

Even better, we're offering a big discount on the course for one day only. If you buy a spot now, you can save 30% off a $1,499 ticket — taking the price down to $1,049. Just use the code FLASH30 at checkout. Payment plans are also available.

Still need convincing? How about this testimonial from one of the new graduates: "The tools and techniques have saved me countless hours while opening doors to new client opportunities. My family has noticed the difference too—they're proud to see me embracing these technologies with such enthusiasm. This course has truly been empowering."

Spring 2025 cohort participants will gain practical experience in:

• Building automations that streamline routine PR tasks, significantly improving workflow efficiency

• Utilizing tools like GPT for Sheets and Excel to generate insightful data and automate complex analyses

• Constructing custom GPT systems to manage real-time crisis scenarios with precise, consistent messaging

• Creating AI-driven media strategies and visualizing ROI with automated data analysis

• Developing customized media monitoring systems that spot trends competitors might overlook

Each attendee receives two personalized coaching sessions, ensuring the skills acquired directly apply to their unique professional challenges. Graduates consistently report tangible benefits: tasks previously taking hours become manageable in minutes, enabling PR pros to expand their business into new sectors confidently.

Listen to the podcast to get a feel for what makes the course so special (more detail below), and hit me up directly if you have any questions.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2025

When Dow Jones’ business intelligence service went down the path of AI, it was determined to avoid stepping on any copyright mines.

This week on The Media Copilot, I sat down with Traci Mabrey, General Manager of Factiva, the business intelligence platform from Dow Jones. Unlike many AI companies that scrape publicly available data without permission, Factiva has secured licensing agreements with all 5,000 of its content providers—a bold move in an industry still navigating copyright battles.

🔹 AI-powered summaries with real licensing: Factiva’s Smart Summaries uses AI to distill key insights from trusted sources—all with publisher approval. 🔹 The copyright conundrum: While many AI models train on unlicensed content, Factiva is proving that there’s another way. But how did they get 5,000 publishers on board? 🔹 Big tech vs. media rights: We discuss Factiva’s approach to indexing 3 billion articles and what happened when Google raised an eyebrow. 🔹 AI hallucinations & security risks: What safeguards are needed to ensure AI-generated summaries are accurate and trustworthy?

Factiva’s strategy could signal a major shift in how AI and media coexist, prioritizing fair compensation and content integrity.

🎧 Join the conversation: ✅ Is Factiva’s model the future of AI-driven media? ✅ Should AI companies be required to license content?

if you want to level up your AI skills, check out my AI Training Course for PR & Media Professionals at mediacopilot.ai.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2025

For decades, local journalism has been in decline—shrinking budgets, newsroom closures, and disappearing community coverage have left behind what experts call "news deserts." But could AI change that? Could it actually help rebuild local news, making it more accessible, efficient, and sustainable?

This week on The Media Copilot, I sat down with Mark Riley, former Senior VP of Innovation at Dow Jones and founder of Mathison AI, to explore how AI is reshaping the future of journalism. Mark has been at the forefront of AI-driven media transformation for years, long before ChatGPT disrupted the industry. His company, Mathison AI, has developed a tool called Hana, which generates hyperlocal newsletters at scale—delivering customized, community-specific news with just a fraction of the effort traditionally required.

While this sounds like a promising breakthrough, it raises critical questions:

🔹 Can AI actually replace—or enhance—local journalism? With newsrooms gutted across the country, AI-generated reporting could fill gaps, but will it uphold journalistic integrity?🔹 How do we prevent AI from creating "news slop?" Without human oversight, AI-generated content can be bland, generic, or even misleading. What safeguards are needed to ensure quality and accuracy?🔹 Who controls the future of media? As AI tools become more prevalent, Silicon Valley’s influence over journalism grows. How do we make sure AI serves the public good rather than corporate interests?🔹 The ethical dilemma of automation: AI can help scale news production, but what happens to the journalists? Is there a way to integrate AI without sacrificing jobs and local expertise?

This is a conversation about AI’s potential to solve one of journalism’s biggest crises—but also a reality check on the risks that come with automating news.

🎧 If you care about the future of media, press play now to hear my discussion with Mark Riley on The Media Copilot!

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2025

If the last decade was about platforms swallowing the press, the next one is about AI mediating everything…how we find news, what we trust, and who gets paid. 

On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Justin Hendrix, CEO and editor of Tech Policy Press, a nonprofit dedicated to provoking debate at the intersection of technology and democracy. Hendrix’s path from The Economist to NYC Media Lab to founding a policy newsroom, shapes a rare perspective; he speaks policy, product, and press. Who sets the rules for AI and media—industry, government, or the public? Justin Hendrix argues the answer starts with competition policy and ends with better equilibria for democracy.

Topics we cover

🔹 Copyright and AI training: The battle between fair use and “giant theft,” why the U.S. path may be decided in court, and how commercialization complicates the ethics.

 🔹 Power concentration: How antitrust and the Digital Markets Act could serve as tectonic levers to rebalance control between platforms and publishers.

 🔹 Quality versus “good enough”: AI hallucinations, the shift to AI as the first stop for answers, and what’s at stake when accuracy is the product.

 🔹 The “beat China” argument: Why urgency-driven narratives risk steamrolling communities, due process, and environmental review in the name of AI infrastructure.

 🔹 Search, remedies, and AI distribution: What Google’s antitrust outcomes could mean for AI-driven search and publisher leverage.

 🔹 Where media could go next: Licensing to AI agents, building owned agents, or a future where AI firms hire thousands of journalists themselves.

 🔹 Policy capacity and trust: Why the government’s tech knowledge gap matters and how Tech Policy Press is helping close it for lawmakers and regulators.

 🔹 Behavior shift: From NPR commutes to chatbot conversations, and the emerging risks of AI companionship and blurred lines between utility and dependency.

Guest: Justin Hendrix — CEO/Editor

Tech Policy Press :https://www.techpolicy.press/ 

📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter  and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License 

© AnyWho Media 2025

AI is rewriting the rules of media, but not all change is for the better. As AI slop floods the internet, the battle over quality, ethics, and authenticity has never been more urgent.

This week on The Media Copilot, I sat down with Kate Knibbs, senior writer at Wired, to dissect the murky world of AI-powered content farms. Her investigative reporting on how SEO masterminds are snapping up legacy media domains—like The Hairpin—to churn out AI-generated slop was a wake-up call for the industry. But is it all doom and gloom?

In this episode, we discuss: 🔹 How AI is being used (and misused) to scale content for cheap clicks 🔹 The evolving media landscape—how can journalism adapt and thrive? 🔹 Who, if anyone, is actually getting AI content right? 🔹 The future role of AI in journalism—tool or takeover? 🔹 The latest Thomson Reuters ruling and what it means for copyright battles in AI

If you care about the intersection of AI, media, and journalism, this conversation is a must-listen.

🎧 Tune in now to explore the future of AI-powered content with Kate Knibbs of Wired!

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2025

AI is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape, but who ensures that publishers get fairly compensated for their content?

As AI companies build massive language models, they often rely on vast amounts of content—much of it scraped from publishers without proper attribution or payment. This week on The Media Copilot, I sat down with Annelies Jansen, Chief Business Officer of ProRata AI, a company on a mission to change that.

Founded by investor Bill Gross, ProRata AI is tackling one of the most pressing issues in AI and journalism: the unauthorized use of original reporting to train AI models. Their solution? A system that tracks AI-generated answers back to their original sources, ensuring publishers are recognized and compensated for their work.

Unlike other startups in this space, ProRata already has dozens of publishers on board, including The Financial Times and Axel Springer. They’re not just building a tracking system—they’ve also developed their own AI-powered search engine, Gist, which grants access to premium publisher content while ensuring fair compensation.

In this episode, we discuss: 🔹 How ProRata AI’s model differs from other AI-compensation initiatives 🔹 The challenge of mediating AI content without stifling innovation 🔹 Why ProRata’s partnerships with publishers could redefine AI training models 🔹 The growing ecosystem of startups tackling the same problem—are they competitors or allies?

As the media industry grapples with AI disruption, ProRata AI is shaping what a well-mediated, sustainable AI future could look like.

If you’re interested in the future of journalism, AI ethics, and media compensation, this episode is a must-listen.

For AI training tailored for media, marketing, and PR professionals, visit mediacopilot.ai to learn more about our upcoming classes.

🎧 Hit play now to explore the future of AI and media with Annelies Jansen of ProRata AI!

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2025

AI is changing the way people tell stories — both PR professionals and journalists. Is it possible both might lose the most important part: authenticity?

The media and communications industry is undergoing a seismic shift, and AI is at the center of it. From content creation to media relations, artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how PR professionals, journalists, and storytellers operate.

This week on The Media Copilot, I sat down with Dan Nestle—a longtime communications executive, AI enthusiast, and founder of Inquisitive Communications. Dan has spent years helping brands craft compelling stories, and as the host of The Trending Communicator podcast, he’s made it his mission to decode the chaos of modern communications.

Unlike many in the industry, Dan has the freedom to dive deep into AI tools, experiment with emerging tech, and rethink media relations at a time when both PR professionals and journalists are using AI in ways that change the game.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How AI is helping fuel the trend of “going direct”

• Why more content isn’t always the answer (and what actually works)

• The impact of DeepSeek and other next-gen AI tools on communications

• How PR professionals can balance AI-driven efficiency with authentic storytelling

At a time when AI is disrupting nearly every facet of content creation, one truth remains: the human connection still matters. Dan shares his insights on how PR professionals can leverage AI without losing sight of what truly drives engagement—great storytelling.

If you’re in PR, media, or content creation, this conversation is essential listening.

And if you’re looking to gain hands-on experience with AI tools, check out The Media Copilot’s AI for PR & Media Professionals training course. Our next six-week cohort begins February 4, 2025, and spots are filling up. Learn more and sign up at mediacopilot.ai.

Press play now to dive into the future of PR, AI, and storytelling with Dan Nestle.

And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

AI is transforming the newsroom, redefining how journalists gather and analyze information, and pushing the boundaries of efficiency and storytelling.

This week on The Media Copilot, I’m joined by Francesco Marconi—AI pioneer, former Associated Press executive, and founder of AppliedXL, a company revolutionizing how we extract actionable insights from real-time data. Francesco’s career spans over a decade of innovating at the intersection of AI and journalism, starting in 2011 when he helped the AP leverage algorithms to turn datasets into stories, from earnings reports to sports stats.

Now, at AppliedXL, Francesco is building tools that empower reporters and analysts to filter through the noise—think social networks, news websites, and endless feeds—and zero in on what truly matters. By streamlining the "gathering" part of news gathering, AI is enabling journalists to focus on deeper storytelling and analysis.

In this episode, Francesco and I explore:

• How AI-powered tools are reshaping the newsroom's workflow.

• The balance between automation and human creativity in journalism.

• The blueprint for building an AI-first newsroom that works for—and with—journalists.

Stick around until the end, where Francesco shares his daily productivity hacks using AI and offers his vision for the future of media in an AI-driven world.

This is a conversation you won’t want to miss—press play now!

If you're looking to dive deeper into the practical applications of AI, check out The Media Copilot’s AI training courses for media and PR professionals. Our next six-week cohort begins on February 4, 2025, offering hands-on training to help you automate workflows, craft smarter campaigns, and harness the power of AI in your day-to-day work. Learn more and sign up at mediacopilot.ai.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2025

AI is redefining how PR professionals and journalists collaborate, bringing new efficiencies while challenging the balance of authenticity and connection.

This week on The Media Copilot, I’m joined by Michelle Songy—founder and CEO of Press Hook, serial entrepreneur, and one of the most innovative minds at the intersection of AI and media. From her start in finance in London to founding a fintech startup acquired by American Express, Michelle’s journey has been nothing short of remarkable. Now, she’s leading the charge in reshaping how PR pros and journalists connect in a world increasingly influenced by AI.

In this episode, Michelle shares how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing PR outreach—streamlining workflows while avoiding the pitfalls of spammy, impersonal communication. Together, we explore:

The delicate balance between efficiency and authenticity in AI-driven outreach.

The challenges and opportunities AI presents for storytelling in media.

The strategies PR professionals and journalists can adopt to thrive in this new landscape.

Stick around until the end, where Michelle reveals her vision for the future of PR, her thoughts on AI agents, and the ambitious plans she has to take Press Hook to new heights.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2025

AI tools are becoming essential partners for writers and creators, opening new possibilities for research, storytelling, and bringing ideas to life.

This week on The Media Copilot, I’m joined by Alexandra Samuel — author, data journalist, keynote speaker, and one of the most forward-thinking voices on the intersection of creativity and AI. Alexandra doesn’t just use AI as a tool; she’s embraced it as a full-fledged collaborator, crafting innovative workflows that are as inspiring as they are practical.

Currently immersed in writing her next book on managing information overload, Alexandra is exploring how neurodivergent strategies can help us thrive in a data-saturated world. With AI by her side, she’s producing at a lightning pace — 50,000 words in just over a week — proving that when humans and technology work together, the results can be astounding.

In this episode, Alexandra breaks down how she’s integrated AI into her creative process, from generating ideas to fine-tuning her writing. We discuss the mindset required to treat AI as a partner and how these approaches can reshape productivity and storytelling in profound ways.

Make sure to stick around until the end, where Alexandra offers a bold vision for the future of media: a world where creators embrace AI to unlock new heights of ingenuity, efficiency, and connection.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

From custom news summaries to uncovering biases, AI can do a lot more than follow trends.

This week, I’m excited to talk to Robert Caulk, Founder of Emergent Methods and the creator of AskNews. Rob has spent years exploring the intersection of AI, machine learning, and media, and his latest project brings a fresh perspective on how we consume news. AskNews isn’t just another chatbot—it’s a tool designed to analyze and present news with clarity, breaking down articles into facts, analysis, and differing viewpoints.

In our conversation, Rob and I dive into the ways journalists and newsrooms can use AI to craft better stories, improve analysis, and engage audiences. We also discuss Rob’s belief in the power of open-source AI and why transparency is key to fostering trust in media technology.

Don’t miss the end of the episode, where Rob shares actionable advice for those navigating the early stages of adopting AI in the media.

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The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2025

How Clare Spencer is leveraging AI to redefine journalism, revolutionize content creation, and address the ethical complexities of modern media.

In this episode of The Media Copilot, Pete Pachal sits down with Clare Spencer, a journalist and producer whose innovative work with AI is reshaping the future of media. At the BBC, Clare was part of a pioneering team experimenting with GPT-3, exploring its potential in newsrooms long before tools like ChatGPT became mainstream.

Now, Clare is focused on a groundbreaking concept she calls “content polymorphing.” This approach uses AI to transform a single piece of content — such as a podcast — into entirely different formats, including articles and videos. It’s a bold reimagining of how creators can use AI to maximize the reach and adaptability of their work.

Pete and Clare delve into the implications of this innovation for the media industry. They explore how AI-powered tools like these can enhance efficiency and creativity while raising critical ethical questions about transparency and accountability in journalism. Clare also shares her perspective on how newsrooms can thoughtfully integrate generative AI, including a practical policy for using AI-generated images without compromising integrity.

Tune in to hear Clare’s expert insights and why she believes this shift isn’t just about technology but about rethinking the very foundations of content creation. Don’t miss this forward-looking conversation that’s sure to challenge conventional ideas about the intersection of AI and media.

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The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

The Race to Monetize AI's Content Appetite and Build the Bridge Between Publishers and AI

This episode is sponsored by Adobe Stock.

I'm excited to share this week's episode of The Media Copilot, where I had a fascinating conversation with Dan Goikhman, the innovative force behind Dappier. As we dive into the evolving landscape of AI and publishing, we tackle one of the most pressing questions facing our industry: how do we make AI companies pay their fair share for content?

In our discussion, Dan breaks down how Dappier is emerging as that crucial bridge between traditional media and what he calls "the AI internet." What fascinates me is how they've positioned themselves as more than just middlemen – they're creating an entire ecosystem where publishers can not only monetize their content but also harness AI's power for their own platforms.

The most compelling part of our conversation comes when we explore how Dappier transforms publishers' content into AI-compatible formats. Think of it as creating a universal translator between human-written content and AI systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity. The genius part? If these AI companies want to use this content, they'll need to pay up, or face a digital blockade.

But what really got me excited was our discussion about the future. We dive deep into whether chat will become the dominant way people consume information, and what that means for media companies. You won't want to miss our exploration of how media organizations need to reimagine themselves in this AI-driven future.

Make sure to stay tuned until the end, where Dan and I explore the philosophical implications of this shift. It's not just about technology – it's about fundamentally rethinking what it means to be a media company in an AI-first world.

🎧 Join me for this illuminating conversation that might just change how you think about the future of publishing.

Sponsor: 
This episode is brought to you by Adobe Stock—now powered by Adobe Firefly. Customize stock images like never before with AI tools that let you swap backgrounds, expand formats, and generate variations instantly. It's pro-level creativity, supercharged. Learn more at adobe.com/stock.

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The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

Can AI Avatars Build Trust in the Newsroom?

This episode is sponsored by Adobe Stock.

This week on The Media Copilot, I’m thrilled to welcome Adam Mosam to the show. Adam is the founder of Channel 1, the groundbreaking news platform where AI avatars serve as anchors, delivering real news that’s entirely scripted, produced, and distributed by AI. Since Channel 1’s teaser video went mega-viral in late 2023, the platform has become a hot topic in the media world. But it’s not here to compete with CNN—it’s here to empower media companies with cutting-edge AI-powered production tools.

Our conversation dives into the fascinating possibilities of AI in video news production, including its potential to drastically cut costs. Producing premium video content is notoriously expensive, but Channel 1 aims to put high-quality video production within reach for media companies of all sizes. Of course, this innovation comes with its challenges. Can AI avatars gain the same level of trust as human reporters? And what happens to the jobs and creativity of human content creators in the long run?

Adam and I explore these questions and more, touching on the ethics, opportunities, and challenges of AI avatars in journalism. Don’t miss the end of the episode, where we discuss the future of news consumption—imagine a world where personal newsagents deliver customized stories directly to you, wherever you are.

Tune in to discover how AI might reshape the way we consume and create news.

Sponsor: 

This episode is brought to you by Adobe Stock—now powered by Adobe Firefly. Customize stock images like never before with AI tools that let you swap backgrounds, expand formats, and generate variations instantly. It's pro-level creativity, supercharged. Learn more at adobe.com/stock.

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The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

 Publishers don’t need bigger walls—they need dials. Here’s how to see, price, and shape LLM and agent activity instead of getting steamrolled by it.

If the last two years were about discovering that AI agents are vacuuming up the web, the next two will be about deciding what to do about it. Do you block, meter, license - or build your own agent and make the bots pay?

On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Aurélie Guerrieri, Chief Growth Officer at DataDome, a Forrester-recognized leader in bot defense. Together, they dive into the new reality of AI-driven traffic: from LLM crawlers and real-time “prompt-time fetching” to the rising tide of agentic activity that acts on users’ behalf. Instead of framing the debate as simply good bots versus bad bots, the conversation explores a more practical lens: identity versus intent, and how publishers can reclaim control, revenue, and visibility in an internet increasingly shaped by AI distribution.

Why this matters now

🔹Scale & speed broke the old defenses. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs - servers that cache and deliver website content from locations closer to users) and Web Application Firewalls (WAFs - security systems that filter and monitor HTTP traffic between users and web applications) still matter, but they adapt in minutes. Attackers now act in seconds and from distributed IPs that look like everyday users.

🔹AI changed the mix of traffic. DataDome sees enormous growth in prompt-time fetching - LLMs hitting your most valuable pages (latest articles, pricing, paywalled previews) 20:1 compared with traditional crawling in some cases.

🔹The business model is shifting. “Open web” ≠ “open season.” Publishers need to decide who gets access, for what, and at what price - and they need tooling that can enforce those choices in real time.

“AI is part of the problem—and part of the solution. We use AI to fight AI.”    -  Aurélie Guerrieri

How can publishers fight back against AI bots—and turn them into new revenue streams instead of lost traffic?

Key topics:

🔹Why the future of AI governance is about identity and intent, not just “good vs. bad bots”
🔹How prompt-time fetching targets publishers’ most valuable content in real time
🔹The rise of agentic activity and why it can be both powerful and dangerous
🔹Why static defenses like content delivery networks (CDNs) and web application firewalls (WAFs) are being outpaced
🔹How DataDome uses AI to fight AI, stopping more attacks and restoring visibility
🔹New monetization models: pay-per-fetch, APIs, and even building owned agents
🔹Lessons from Cloudflare vs. Perplexity and what they mean for publisher control
🔹Guerrieri’s advice to media leaders: measure, control, and experiment

Her bottom line: the future of publishing isn’t about keeping bots out, but about shaping how they come in—and making them pay for the privilege.

🎙 Guest:

 Aurélie Guerrieri | CGO,  DataDome | LinkedIn 

📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License 

© AnyWho Media 2025

 The Media Copilot is partnering with The Upgrade for a comprehensive six-week AI course tailored for PR and media professionals. Explore the course here.

As you may know, in addition to hosting a podcast, I also teach media professionals — newsrooms, PR firms, and more — on how to apply AI to their work. I've taken all kinds of AI courses and constantly try out new tools, and I've distilled all that and put the best parts into an AI class for journalists and communications pros that goes from basic prompting to advanced tools in a single afternoon.

However, the AI world is moving faster than a comet. Models are evolving, new platforms are emerging, and tools are getting more sophisticated. There are now all kinds of AI-powered apps dedicated to narrow aspects of media work — from social media generation to news analysis to automated email campaigns. And the well-known chatbots have powerful new features with potential that's barely been scratched.

It's clear that AI classes in general need an upgrade, and that makes my announcement today doubly apt: I'm partnering with Peter Bittner, CEO of The Upgrade Academy, and Kris Krüg, Founder of Techartist, to offer an extensive six-week course entitled AI for PR & Media Professionals, happening in early 2025. Registrations are open now, and if you grab a spot before December 15 you can use the discount code EARLYBIRD25 at checkout to get 25% off the price.

• Course title: AI for PR & Media Professionals

• Begins: Feb. 4, 2025

• Format: six 1-hour classes, each focusing on different aspects of media, PR, and communications work

• Instructors: Pete Pachal, Peter Bittner, Kris Krüg

• Who is this for: PR and media professionals

• How to buy: Checkout link (discount code: EARLYBIRD25; group rates available)

For the full breakdown of what's in the course, check out the class page, but here's a summary:

Course Highlights:

This course goes beyond foundational concepts and goes deep into using AI for specific use cases and workflows, such as media monitoring, campaign analysis, and crisis management. Each week includes interactive workshops where participants can apply what they've learned in real-world scenarios, helping build a practical understanding of the tools and techniques. Peter Bittner and I will guide participants every step of the way, offering insights from our extensive experience in media and AI.

What You Will Learn:

Participants will learn AI-powered content creation, including generating and refining social media posts, press releases, and other media content. They will also discover automated media monitoring techniques to track news and monitor public sentiment effectively. Additionally, attendees will explore how to use AI for automating and personalizing communication strategies, making outreach campaigns more impactful.

By the end of the six weeks, you will not only understand how AI can fit into your daily work but also feel confident using a variety of tools to boost productivity and creativity.

Join us, and let's explore how AI can empower your work!

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

Business Insider's CEO on the Legal Challenges Reshaping the Media Industry

This week, I’m thrilled to welcome Jakob Wais to the podcast. Jakob is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider Germany, a key player within Axel Springer’s media empire. Axel Springer was one of the first major media companies to embrace generative AI, striking a groundbreaking deal with OpenAI in late 2023, which integrated their publications, including Jakob’s, with ChatGPT.

I was eager to dive into Jakob’s insights on how a major media company leverages AI in its newsroom. We explored the flexibility he has in applying AI to editorial workflows, the ways his team of journalists perceive and adapt to these tools, and—most critically—how Business Insider Germany’s audience reacts to the integration of AI into the content they consume.

Our conversation also touched on the legal battles shaping the media landscape, including the recent lawsuit between News Corp and Perplexity. Jakob shared a thought-provoking perspective on what AI engines truly do with content, offering a fresh way to think about how machines "read" compared to humans. And don’t miss the surprising connection Jakob draws between men’s fashion in Tokyo and the future of quality journalism.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

This week I'm thrilled to welcome Liam Andrew to the podcast. Liam's been working with machine learning and AI for a lot longer than most of us. He worked on the product team at the Texas Tribune for more than eight years before making the jump earlier this year to the American Journalism Project, where he serves as Technology Lead for its Product & AI Studio, which obviously has a huge focus on how newsrooms can leverage AI. Liam constantly talks to local newsrooms all over the country, so he has a front-row seat into what their challenges are, how AI can help, and how it's actually being used day to day.

I loved getting into the weeds with Liam. He and I talked about AI newsroom issues big and small — like whether or not ChatGPT is any good at headlines, but also the ethics of using generative images. We tackle some heavy issues in the state of media today, and I hope you'll listen to the end, where he gives some excellent advice for newsrooms who may be closer to the beginning of their AI journey than the end. 

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

If you follow AI at all, you’ve probably heard of Google NotebookLM. The Gemini-powered feature got a huge popularity boost recently when it introduced the ability to create a totally synthetic podcast around any material you gave it. The idea of a “podcast this” button on any article, video, or set of PowerPoints is a powerful one, and it underscores the transformative power of AI and large language models (LLMs).

That transformative power has actually been around much longer than NotebookLM’s audio overviews. On this week’s Media Copilot podcast, I talk to Daniel Rascon, co-founder of AnyTopic. His AI startup is entirely about creating audio experiences about, well, any topic. Essentially you tell the app what you're interested in — anything from medieval architecture or how to get better sleep — and it'll go out and find the most relevant content about that topic, creating a mini audiobook for you to listen to whenever you want.

These aren’t word-for-word readings of text articles like The Washington Post and The New York Times are doing. I'd actually call the broader idea a “content polymorph” — essentially an AI agent designed to search for, interpret, and reformat information around whatever the user specifies. Right now it's centered around audio experiences, but there's no reason the same idea couldn't be applied to all kinds of formats, potentially giving everyone their own personal media reformatter in the future.

Daniel and I explored what that future might look like, and how AnyTopic might be the first step in getting there. It was an illuminating conversation, and be sure to listen to the end where we don't shy away from why such a flexible, customizable future might be scary to a lot of people.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

When should we use AI and when shouldn't we?

That's a question that comes up often when I consult with media companies and PR firms on integrating AI into their editorial teams. You have to balance a number of factors — chief among them goals, ethics, and cost. You also need to consider the long-term picture and what it looks like when AI begins to take on tasks that were previously human-driven.

It's a tough thing to get right for an individual or a company, let alone all of society. What would help is a framework for how people can approach AI, a guide to where it can make the most difference, with careful weighing of the benefits and the risks of using such a powerful technology.

Journalist Jeremy Kahn has just what you're looking for. His book, Mastering AI, explores many facets of how AI is changing our world, from healthcare to the military to, yes, the media. Jeremy has covered AI extensively, most recently serving as the AI Editor at Fortune. He's also the latest guest on The Media Copilot podcast.

Jeremy and I had a wide-ranging conversation about AI, exploring some big-picture factors that I don't often get to sink my teeth into. We talked about copyright, bias, journalist copilots, and what the future of media looks like in a world where chatbots summarize everything. He also has a really good sense of what disciplined use of AI looks like, something I think journalists can really benefit from. 

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

This week on The Media Copilot podcast, I'm thrilled to talk to Joanna Stern, Senior Personal Technology Columnist at the Wall Street Journal. Joanna and I used to see each other quite often at various tech events when I was the Tech Editor at Mashable. She's known for her clever tech videos and deep reporting on how the titans of Silicon Valley are altering our lives in big and small ways.

Lately, though, she's making a name for herself by being an AI innovator. Normally this time of year she'd have a big review of the latest iPhones, but instead she gave the world Joannabot: an AI-powered chatbot created the Journal tech team and Joanna herself, designed to give readers all the advice they could ever want about buying the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro — in Joanna’s unique voice (or a close approximation).

As soon as I saw Joannabot, I knew I wanted to talk to Joanna about it. Not just because it's a wildly interesting AI experiment from a major publisher, but also because I've been dying to get Joanna's thoughts on the big picture of AI: how far it's come, what is on the horizon, and how it's changed the way she does her job.

Mission: accomplished. It was a really fun conversation, and I hope you listen till the end, where I squeeze out of her what she really thinks of Apple Intelligence Apple's upcoming feature upgrade that will add AI to the iPhone experience — and how that will change what we think of as "consumer AI."

NOTE: This podcast was recorded prior to Meta Connect, where Meta unveiled its Orion AI-powered smart glasses.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

Remember that AI song based on the voices of Drake and the Weeknd that made the rounds last fall? It was a polarizing moment for AI — underscoring its power but also its peril, since neither artist had a say in the creation of that song.

Enter Hooky. The fresh AI startup is trying to solve this problem, one that isn’t unique to music. It’s actually one of the biggest issues in generative AI, undergirding the lawsuits against OpenAI, Stable Diffusion and all the rest: How do you ensure content creators can both control and profit from the use of their work when it's gobbled up by AI?

In Hooky’s case, it enables artists to license their voice to service, allowing the app’s customers to create original songs with that voice, and even distribute them to streaming platforms like Spotify. The artist approves every single AI song, and how much revenue they get entirely up to them.

The idea makes a ton of sense, but Hooky is also performing for a tough crowd: artists have a lot of AI skepticism, the regulatory landscape is really unclear, and there are plenty of competing AI apps that don't have any licensing or safeguards.

In the latest episode of The Media Copilot podcast, I talk to Jordan Young, CEO of Hooky. Jordan is a longtime music artist and producer who's worked with the likes of Jay-Z, the Chainsmokers, and Coldplay. We explore how the music industry might be best equipped to deal with the copyright-and-compensation problem, and we also tackle a key question: whether or not anyone really wants to listen to AI music in the first place.

And, yes, Taylor Swift does come up.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

I always feel good when I see fellow journalists going out on their own to build something new, and that's exactly what Nick Toso and Catalina Villegas are doing with Rolli. Toso is the former Washington Bureau Chief at CNN, and Villegas has worked as a producer and anchor for TV news. And with Rolli, they're creating a set of tools for journalists to help them work faster while producing better work — exactly what every newsroom in asking them to do. "Do more with less" is a tired phrase, but that's because it's everywhere now. It's the rule, not the exception.

How to do more with less doesn't get talked about nearly as much, but Rolli has a lot to say about that. You need an expert for your story — fast? Rolli can help. You need to know if a viral story is true or not, and where it originated? Rolli can help. And you don't actually have any money to pay for this service? Rolli can still help.

I went deep on Rolli with Nick and Catalina in this discussion, but beyond the features of service, I also put the focus on the forces in media that are putting services like Rolli in demand, including — what else? — AI.

It was a really fun conversation, and I hope you listen to the whole thing, since I don't shy away from asking them some tough questions about trust and bias that curated services are often accused of. Hey, I'm a journalist, too.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

When it comes to the right and wrong of using AI in creative work, it's safe to say we're still figuring it out. That goes double for music, where AI has cultivated more than its share of lawsuits and suspicion from artists.

From the audience perspective, AI is arguably changing things even more. Recommendation algorithms have the power to influence our tastes, but they also can put us in bubbles. At the same time, AI-cloned voices paired with auto-generated lyrics could end up changing our expectations of what's good entirely — we may not care whether it's Drake or fake.

For some thoughtful opinions on all this, I looked to authorities in both entertainment and AI. At the recent Ai4 conference in Las Vegas, I sat down with none other than comedian and actor Cedric the Entertainer as well as Alex Elias, CEO of AI recommendation engine Qloo. Our conversation got into the potential benefits and drawbacks of AI in music and show business.

Despite concerns about what AI could mean for artists' legacies (Tupac does come up), both Cedric and Alex expressed cautious optimism about the future of AI in music. Ultimately I came away convinced that it comes down to finding the right balance — harnessing AI's potential while preserving the human element.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

For companies building new things and trying to tell their story, there's a lot of talk about "going direct" lately. This is shorthand for a new(-ish) type of PR, where the founder and sometimes other key people simply use social platforms, newsletters and all the other tools of media themselves — eschewing the traditional route of telling their stories through journalists.

The idea has gained traction in the last few years (I moderated a whole discussion about it at Consensus 2024), and whether or not you think it's a smart PR strategy, there's a lesson here for the media itself: bypassing intermediaries is an essential part of audience "ownership" — one of the biggest concerns in a world where AI chatbots now answer user questions without connecting those users to the source that originated the information.

To better understand how publishers and the media can re-assert ownership of their own audiences, I talked to Mike Donoghue for The Media Copilot podcast. Mike is the CEO of Subtext, which transforms text messaging into a broadcast channel — reaching audiences through one of the core apps of the modern smartphone. Publishers use Subtext to create conversations with readers, celebrities use it to connect with fans, and all those interactions can be two-way. All they need to do is hit reply.

In a lot of ways, texting seems like the new email, and potentially a way for publishers to create a new surface to reach audiences that they control, shielded from Google, AI, and everything else. I talked to Mike about how Subtext came to be, why texting and SMS might be the last frontier for owning the audience relationship, and the role Subtext can play in a media ecosystem where AI is rapidly becoming the new platform to worry about — and perhaps to master.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

From “subscriber‐financed stalwart” to AI trailblazer—how The Atlantic built an AI task force, overhauled its search strategy, and struck bold licensing deals to future-proof quality journalism.

This week on The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal sits down with Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, to unpack how one of America’s most storied publications is navigating the AI revolution. Under Nick’s leadership, The Atlantic has become a rare legacy‐media success story—profitable, subscriber-driven, and bold in its AI strategy. From launching an internal task force post-ChatGPT to pivoting away from Google-first traffic, to striking a licensing deal with OpenAI despite staff unease, The Atlantic’s journey offers a playbook in balancing journalistic integrity, business sustainability, and technological innovation. Nick brings both enthusiasm for AI’s potential and a clear-eyed realism about its impact on news discovery and trust.

Pete and Nick dive into: 🔹 The AI Task Force’s findings on search traffic decline and what it meant for The Atlantic’s business model 🔹 Behind the scenes of The Atlantic’s licensing agreement with OpenAI—and why it ruffled editorial feathers 🔹 How “agents” and personalized AI tools will reshape how readers find and engage with journalism 🔹 The Atlantic’s ethics playbook for AI: rules, guardrails, and editorial oversight 🔹 Striking the balance between subscriber trust, profitability, and fearless experimentation

Whether you’re a media professional, tech enthusiast, or simply curious about the future of news, this episode offers rare insight into how a leading publication is plotting its course through one of the most tumultuous eras in media history.

🎙 Guest: Nicholas Thompson | CEO, The Atlantic | https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasthompson

📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License 

© AnyWho Media 2025

Perplexity is here to answer your questions.

Answering questions requires good information, though, and providing answers is easier if the people with the information actually want to give it to you. That’s a super-simple way of describing why Perplexity — the “answer engine” AI startup that pairs generative summaries with search — this week launched the Perplexity Publishers’ Program. By sharing advertising revenue with partners, Perplexity hopes to create better incentives for them to allow access to their content.

To unpack the new program and what it means to the media business, I spoke to Dmitry Shevelenko, the Chief Business Officer of Perplexity. If you're a cynic, you might think the move is purely defensive — that Perplexity is doing this so it doesn’t get sued. My takeaway, though, after talking to Shevelenko, is that Perplexity recognizes it needs good facts and good journalism to help fuel its so-called "answer engine, and that it wants to find a way to keep those coming.

But yes, he and I do talk about those notorious accusations about plagiarism from Forbes and Wired, what's the right way to attribute original reporting in an AI summary, and yes — that OTHER AI search engine that was just announced by a competitor you might know called OpenAI.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

AI companies hoovered up the entire internet before anyone questioned: Is that OK? This is the question that has led to a multitude of lawsuits (including, famously, The New York Times suing OpenAI), many deals between AI companies and various publishers, and an emerging consensus that content creators should be compensated for their data.

That's all well and good in theory, but what about the "how?" That's what my guests this week, Olivia Joslin and Toshit Panigrahi, are here to talk about. Joslin and Panigrahi are the co-founders of TollBit, which is one of a handful of companies tackling a very hard problem in media today, and that's how to get people to pay for content. Well, not people — machines. The web scraping that AI companies do used to be fairly benign. It helps power things like Google search and has traditionally been used as a research tool. But now the big AI guys are just taking that information and summarizing it, without doing that much of the linking anymore. And that's kind of a problem.

Publishers are very motivated now to find ways to be compensated when someone scrapes their content, and that's exactly what TollBit is trying to create: a marketplace where publishers and those who want their data can make a simple exchange: money for information. Of course things aren't always that simple, and I got into the complexities, the politics, and the realities of trying to get someone to pay for something that they've up until now been getting for free.

It was a really illuminating conversation, and I hope you listen all the way to the end where we zero on what a healthy media future looks like. As ever, if you enjoyed this conversation, it would be great if you could follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app, really. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe to the channel. Much obliged.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

When you think about AI disrupting Hollywood, you typically think about CGI characters and creation tools like Sora and Pika that turn text prompts into impressively realistic visuals in seconds. But while technologies that create the things that meet our eyes understandably grab most of the headlines, there’s a quieter disruption happening at the very beginning of the moviemaking process.

Dilip Rajan is the co-founder of Jumpcut, whose tagline is, “Automate grunt work so you can get back to storytelling.” It does that with a product called ScriptSense, which inserts AI into the tedious slog of script coverage — the act of reading and evaluating screenplays. If a script isn’t from a known writer, a studio doesn’t have a lot to go on, so they often outsource it to a network of contractors, which obviously takes time and depends a lot on the tastes of those contractors. Powered by large language models (LLMs), ScriptSense can read way more scripts than any human could, analyze them to a common standard, and then summarize what they're about and if they're any good.

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Of course, there's a little more to it than that, but you can see why any movie studio would be interested in a machine that can read screenplays at scale, especially when there are tens of thousands of scripts floating around Hollywood at any given time — a number that will surely increase now that ChatGPT is joining the writers room.

I chatted with Dilip about where Jumpcut came from, how writers and agents should think about the disruption AI represents, and why Jumpcut's script processor might be just the tool Hollywood needs to get out of its current creativity rut. I thought it was fascinating conversation, especially when we went deep on how ScriptSense works — it's not just "Chat with PDF" on steroids.

If you want to check out Lucihub, please email us a ⁠team@mediacopilot.ai⁠ with Lucihub in the subject and we'd be happy to send you a discount code.

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© AnyWho Media 2024

When it comes to AI changing video, generative tools like Sora and Dream Machine have stolen a lot of the spotlight. with their ability to "imagine" video clips from text prompts. As cool as they are, most of them aren't available yet, and there's a big question of whether they actually save you any time.

But while these magic clip generators create a lot of excitement, there's a quiet disruption taking place downstream. Because in the real world, when you undertake a video project (whether it's editorial or marketing), there’s a universal rule: You want it done well, you want it done fast, and you want it done cheap. And you can only have two of those things.

Could AI put us on a path to getting all three? That's what I wanted to find out from Amer Tadayon. Amer is the CEO of Lucihub, a service that can create videos that would have taken days or weeks, and turn them around in hours — sometimes minutes. You still need to give it raw footage (it's not a purely generative tool like Sora), but it uses AI so that Lucihub’s human editors can cut videos incredibly quickly, and for a lot less than you'd pay an agency. For creative teams struggling for manpower and resources, it feels like a game-changer.

I talked with Amer about how Lucihub is disrupting the conventional wisdom around video, as well as what that means for the big picture. Could AI make video great again?

If you want to check out Lucihub, please email us a team@mediacopilot.ai with Lucihub in the subject and we'd be happy to send you a discount code.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

Quick question: How do you know it’s really me in this podcast video? After all, with AI services like Synthesia and ElevenLabs ready to clone my likeness and voice in mere minutes, it’s more than a possibility these days.

Besides obvious artifacts you might see in an AI-generated video, there’s the concept of content provenance, which in practice means a set of technical standards that imagery must adhere to so it can include metadata — nonvisible information that reveals whether an image was created by AI or not — and what modifications there were before it hit your eyeballs.

The thing is, for content provenance to work, you need everyone in the chain — from camera to website — to pay attention to it. So it turns out infrastructure plays a big role, and that’s what I wanted to to talk to Livepeer CEO Doug Petkanics about on The Media Copilot podcast.

Livepeer is a decentralized video platfom, which has an ace up its sleeve with respect to content provenance: the blockchain. By using the same tech that powers cryptocurrencies, Livepeer aims to create a cost-effective, scalable, and reliable way to both process video and label it properly. Its new AI subnet means the network now supports AI-generated content, including tools like OpenAI's video generator, Sora.

Doug and I explored the critical issue of content authenticity in the age of AI. As deepfakes and AI-generated media become more prevalent, this is obviously a growing challenge. Doug explained how Livepeer's blockchain tech can help maintain a healthy media ecosystem by providing verifiable “attestations” of content creation and modification, helping ensure that audiences can trust the what they’re looking at.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

Journalists are naturally skeptical people. They look critically at new things, especially when the incentives around them are complex, and that's certainly the case with AI. Given the early missteps of some sites publishing AI content and the existential threat the technology poses to distribution, it's only natural that a stigma around using AI has emerged among many reporters.

That stigma is something Josh Brandau is wearing down, one newsroom at a time. Josh is the co-founder of Nota, a content platform for augmenting newsrooms with AI tools. I spoke to Josh for The Media Copilot podcast about the company and how it's grown since its launch in the summer of 2022 — well before ChatGPT and generative AI exploded into the mainstream.

Josh and I discussed how Nota is helping newsrooms, especially small to midsize ones, giving them easy ways to leverage AI to create content more efficiently across multiple formats. But we also talked about how transformative AI is going to be, both for how journalists do their work and the industry as a whole. With everything happening with Google’s AI Search and ChatGPT’s new ability to really talk to you, that discussion is definitely more urgent than ever.

If you enjoy this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app, really. Also, we’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe to the channel.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

In the latest episode of The Media Copilot podcast, I had the pleasure of talking with Jon Gillham, founder of Originality.ai, about the nuanced world of AI-generated content and its detection. Jon's company started from a simple need in his content marketing business: ensuring that content was authentically created by humans, not AI. As AI sophistication has grown, so has the necessity for robust detection tools.

The field of AI detection is more complicated than you might think. Jon points out that while not all AI content is spam, almost all spam is now AI-generated. That leads us to an unpacking of Google’s dilemma — that targeting AI-generated content in search results might result a better experience for customers but its position as a major LLM developer inherently conflicts with that goal. Nonetheless, AI detection tools are essential for publishers trying to navigate the new digital landscape without compromising their search rankings or credibility.

We also talk about the importance of transparency and authorship as AI becomes more ingrained in digital content creation. Projecting forward, you can begin to see a “hybrid” future where AI aids content creation under stringent guidelines to ensure quality and authenticity, and that’s OK!

I’m really happy with how the conversation goes deep on the complexities and realities of having AI “out in the wild” in our information ecosystem, and how the interplay between AI technologies and content creators has evolved — and will continue to evolve.

If you enjoy this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app, really. Also, we’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe to the channel.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

If past is prologue, the story of how AI changes media won't have a happy ending for those in the news business. Tech platforms profoundly altered the media landscape over the last 20 years, forever redefining how news is created, distributed, and monetized, and most media brands that tethered their strategy to tech platforms now find themselves diminished and, in some cases, demolished. Will history repeat itself with AI?

To guide me toward an answer, I turned to Ricky Sutton. Ricky is one of the most interesting personalities in media today, and we spoke on The Media Copilot podcast. He’s had a wildly diverse career, cutting his teeth as a reporter before moving on to very important roles at both media companies and tech companies. That experience has enabled him to spot trends long before they were obvious to the rest of us. Ricky's also founded Oovoo, a video platform for media companies that’s powered by — what else — AI.

Last year he stepped down from the day-to-day at Oovoo to focus on AI through his own Substack called Future Media, where he regularly shares his thoughts on how AI is changing how we consume information, and how those in the media can get ahead of those trends so we’re not always at the mercy of Big Tech.

If you enjoy this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app, really. Also, we’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe to the channel.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

This week on The Media Copilot podcast I’m thrilled to talk to Alex Fink. Alex is the founder and CEO of Otherweb, a news aggregator that uses AI to give readers a healthier news diet than your average social media feed. Instead of optimizing for outrage or clickbait, Otherweb favors “kale over cake” — an analogy we come back to a few times in the conversation. Alex has an interesting career. After working for a long time in computer vision, he decided the world had enough cameras and decided to focus instead on the decisions technology could help with rather than the tech itself. Otherweb isn’t his first rodeo — he’s been a founder twice before and a very astute observer of the media business. He’s full of great observations about the arguably corrupted incentives of ad-based media, which helps to guide Otherweb and the way it ranks and serves up content. You can check out Otherweb here: https://otherweb.com/

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

Yes, we know generative AI is bad for writing articles whole-cloth. But what IS it good for when you want to apply AI in a newsroom?

In this week's episode of The Media Copilot podcast, host Pete Pachal explores that question Joe Amditis, Associate Director of Operations at the Center for Cooperative Media. As part of his role, Joe researches how journalists can apply generative AI, both at the individual and organization levels, and has written guides on publicly available tools, including the how to create custom GPTs for reporting use cases.

Joe's advice to those new to using AI for journalism? Experiment. Journalists need to use AI to understand its capabilities and limitations, and should focus on low-stakes tasks initially. Once they're comfortable, some of the most useful applications he's found are:

• Documentation and transcription

• Brainstorming ideas on why people should care about a story

• Filtering through data and documents to surface potential leads

• Generating stock images and graphics to accompany articles

The key takeaway: Use AI tools pragmatically to gain efficiency in workflows, but do not lose sight of the human element and relationships at the core of journalism. As long as journalists don't lose sight of creating quality, valuable content for their communities, they'll be able to find ways AI can help move faster toward that goal.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

Cloudflare’s move to block AI bots by default could reshape how content is protected online—raising new questions about copyright, scraping, and the future of AI training data.

This week on The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer of Cloudflare, for a conversation that couldn’t be more timely.

On July 1st, Cloudflare announced a game-changing move: any new domain hosted on its massive network will automatically block AI bots from scraping content. That’s a major escalation in the growing fight over who gets to access and use data on the internet—and how.

Cloudflare is far from a minor player. It routes 20% of global internet traffic, and its decision to restrict bot access by default could redraw the boundaries of the AI economy. As generative AI companies train their models on vast amounts of publicly available content—often without consent—this kind of infrastructural pushback may mark a turning point.

Pete and Stephanie dive deep into:

🔹 How Cloudflare identifies and blocks AI bots in real time

🔹 Why this decision matters more than individual publishers adding "robots.txt"

🔹 What enforcement looks like when AI companies try to sneak around restrictions

🔹 The potential ripple effect across the rest of the internet

🔹 Whether we’re heading toward an AI content economy—and what that might look like

It’s a conversation that raises urgent questions about digital rights, platform responsibility, and the blurry future of content in the AI era.

Whether you're a journalist, technologist, or just someone who cares about the future of the web, this episode is essential listening.

🎙 Guest: Stephanie Cohen | https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieecohen 

Chief Strategy Officer, Cloudflare | https://www.cloudflare.com/ 

📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License 

© AnyWho Media 2025

What's it like to come face-to-face with your own deepfake? Anne-Marie Tomchak knows, and the encounter is captured vividly in her documentary Game Changer: AI and You, which aired recently on Ireland's public broadcaster.

It's a powerful moment, and one I would argue every journalist covering AI should experience: the unnerving feeling of seeing your own image and voice co-opted to say or do anything that the programmer desires. It's one thing to hear about a celebrity like Taylor Swift being deepfaked; it's quite another to have it done to you personally. And with the technology becoming so accessible, that becomes a greater possibility every day.

On this week's episode of The Media Copilot podcast, Anne-Marie shared the insights she gained by working on the documentary (her second on the subject of AI), zeroing in on AI's growing influence in journalism. We discussed how AI is reshaping the media landscape, from newsroom operations to content creation, and the ethical and legal conundrums emerging from AI-generated content. As the founder of BBC's social media investigative unit, Anne-Marie talks about how this technological shift is different from digital media shakeups of the past.

If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe on your favorite platform, check out our channel on YouTube, and leave a review or a star rating. It really does help the show, and it'll ensure we keep bringing you great conversations like this one.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

Doing journalism with AI? What even is that?

Up until recently, the answer to that question was a small part of the profession, mostly restricted to big publications with deep pockets and a sophisticated data strategy (think: The Washington Post or the AP). But after ChatGPT said hello to the world a year and a half ago, however, "AI-powered news" was suddenly a blank canvas.

After the world saw the disastrous results of using the content produced by generative AI without a robust process surrounding the creating, vetting, and publishing of that content, the media world went back to the drawing board: What is this "magical" new technology good for, and what does a newsroom need to do to use it safely and ethically?

David Caswell spends most of his days thinking about exactly that. David has been working with machine learning and AI in media for well over a decade, leading product teams at the BBC, Tribune Publishing, and Yahoo. He's now a consultant and researcher focused on AI in newsrooms, and he wrote arguably the definitive guide on the subject last fall in his article "AI and News: What's Next?"

This week David joins The Media Copilot podcast to talk about everything that's happened since his article dropped, and how his thinking about AI's role in our media ecosystem has changed. We also explore what he hopes to see come out of The New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI, how reporters should be leveraging generative tools, and why journalists are naturally good prompt engineers.

If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe on your favorite platform and leave a review or a star rating. It really does help the show, and it'll ensure we keep bringing you great conversations like this one.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

What happens when you teach your AI to churn out believable fictional characters? AImmersive co-founders Max Salamonowicz and Casey McBeath have built a tool for writers and creatives who want to create realistic video game and fiction characters.

The tool they've created isn't just a simple character generator. It's an advanced AI system designed to produce believable, complex characters with unique personalities, backstories, and traits.

Salamonowicz and McBeath spoke to John Biggs for The Media Copilot podcast. Their insights offer a glimpse into the merging of technology and creativity, and how generative AI is poised to redefine the landscape of narrative arts.

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on X.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to the podcast on:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024

Copyright is one of the biggest issues in AI. Eric Wengrowski, the CEO of Steg.AI explains how digital watermarking can help.

It's fair to say the subject of copyright comes up a lot when you're talking about AI. Whether you're talking about a large language model (LLM) like the ones that power ChatGPT, or diffusion models that serve text-to-image creators like Midjourney, these generative systems suck up massive amounts of training data from the open web.

This has concerned many content creators and publishers, including The New York Times, which brought its concerns to the courts in late December. While the world waits for the law to catch up to the AI industry, the question remains: can authors, photographers, videographers and anyone else in the business of creating content do anything to ensure they stay connected and in control of the things they create?

There might be. What all these issues are circling is the concept of content provenance: ensuring the copyright holder of any piece of content is embedded within the content itself. One way to do that through digital watermarking — essentially creating an "Invisible QR code" that travels with the document, image, or video, even if it's copied and stripped of metadata.

Steg.AI is a company that specializes in digital watermarking, and The Media Copilot spoke with its CEO, Eric Wengrowski in our latest podcast. We fully explored the role of watermarking in a world where all kinds of web crawlers are constantly hoovering up data, why it's important to label synthetic content, and the incredibly important question of: can you still detect the watermark of a piece of training data in model output?

The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

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Subscribe to the podcast on:

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Favorite⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

© AnyWho Media 2024