You may have noticed a boilerplate disclaimer at the bottom of some stories on WTVR.com in recent months.
“This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.”
Our parent company, Scripps, introduced Engine Room to its network of stations in December 2024. Engine Room is a platform that securely hosts generative AI chat tools, giving our journalists secure access to several mainstream Large Language Models.
Apps developed within Engine Room have access to our Journalism Ethics and Style Guidelines, as well as other reference material that helps our team of journalists efficiently provide you with accurate and verifiable information.
Examples of AI use at WTVR
We are constantly exploring new responsible use cases to deploy our AI tools – but here is a list of a few ways we use Engine Room in the WTVR newsroom on a day-to-day basis.
Script conversion
The most frequent use of AI in our newsroom is to convert scripts from broadcast format to digital, or vice-versa.
Most news stories we cover are written for TV first. Below is the script for a story that aired during the CBS 6 News at Noon on Tuesday, May 6.
TAKE:ON CAM
{***ON CAM***}
Anchor:CHERYL
A SPILL THIS MORNING ON INTERSTATE 85 IN PETERSBURG HELD UP TRAFFIC IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.
IT'S NOW CLEANED UP AND TRAFFIC IS FLOWING ONCE AGAIN.
Notes:WAS ROLLED ON IN FEED 2 THIS MORNING.
TAKE VO
{***VO***}
Anchor:CHERYL
THIS IS VIDEO FROM A VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TRAFFIC CAMERA IN THE AFFECTED AREA.
THE CRASH HAPPENED AROUND 7 A-M... CAUSING UNKNOWN CONTENTS TO SPILL INTO THE NORTHBOUND LANES NEAR THE ROUTE ONE EXIT OF I-85.
THAT LED TO SEVERAL NORTH AND SOUTHBOUND LANES TO BE CLOSED DOWN THIS MORNING.
NO WORD YET ON EXACTLY WHAT THE CONTENTS WAS THAT SPILLED OR WHAT LED UP TO THE CRASH.
AGAIN -- THIS SPILL ON I-85 IN PETERSBURG IS NOW CLEANED UP AND ALL LANES ARE BACK OPEN.
This script is optimal for being read out loud by an anchor on TV, but it doesn’t work as well for you to read on our website. So, we might give this script to Engine Room, which is already familiar with our journalistic guidelines and style, to convert it to a more readable digital version.
The AI output is below.
Traffic flowing again after morning spill on Interstate 85 in Petersburg
A spill on Interstate 85 in Petersburg caused significant traffic delays this morning, but the area has now been cleared and traffic is flowing normally again.
The crash happened around 7 a.m., causing unknown contents to spill into the northbound lanes near the Route One exit of I-85.
The incident led to closures of several northbound and southbound lanes throughout the morning, as shown in Virginia Department of Transportation traffic camera footage.
Officials have not yet released information about what substances were spilled or what caused the crash.
All lanes on I-85 in Petersburg are now open following the cleanup operation.
Our next (and most important) step is human review, checking for errors and the like that may have gotten lost in translation. We never publish unedited or unreviewed copy from Engine Room.
Engine Room can also be used in the same way reversed, converting digital stories to TV scripts.
First-pass story review
Engine Room can take a first look at stories, editing for AP style, typos, grammar, spelling, etc. Human eyes are always the last to review a story before we hit publish or it goes on air.
Headline help and optimization
We can use Engine Room to ensure we’re employing succinct, active, and person-first language in the way we frame our stories for readers.
Summarizing lengthy documents
We might give lengthy reports, meeting summaries, or the like to Engine Room and ask it to identify the main takeaways and newsworthy angles.
Story ideas
Our greatest tool when it comes to finding stories in our community will always be our journalists – but when seeking out follow-ups and related coverage, AI can be a starting point for finding creative angles.
Questions?
If you have further questions about how we use AI at WTVR, you can connect with a member of our team by emailing web@wtvr.com.
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