Inviting AI developer to college media summit is distasteful

When the 2026 Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit panelist list was released, I was stunned that OpenAI “journalism developer” Evan Hirsch was invited to talk about his work in journalism and AI.

I immediately questioned why the planners would bring in someone developing AI, which is the main factor in the smaller number of jobs available for students to enter post-graduation. What could he possibly say that would appeal to college students?

Generally, I do not have a problem with someone coming to talk about the role AI has in the media; it is a concern. In fact, it should be discussed extensively. The problem is that you brought a person who is actively developing software that will erase media jobs and make it harder for qualified students to get those jobs after school. This is not about making journalists’ jobs easier.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor data, the United States has seen 200 thousand jobs in the arts disappear since 2022, the same time ChatGPT was released. This includes careers in TV and radio production, newspapers and graphic design, among others. So with that in mind, why would a school like Oswego State, known for its prestigious media programs, invite someone who you could say is driving to kill those careers? 

Let’s start with the basics. Hirsch is a graduate of Syracuse University and a 20-year veteran of TV producing for both NBC and CBS, before dropping everything he had done in his career to develop AI for journalists.

So why did Hirsch leave a long producing career behind to pursue AI development? 

To understand that, we need to start with his view of the journalism industry. Hirsch believes journalists are overworked and newsrooms are often inefficient, which I understand as a problem. His goal is to address these issues by using AI to streamline newsroom operations and reduce the workload placed on journalists.

 Although he has stated that he does not want to replace human journalists with AI, his vision still centers on making newsrooms “more efficient”– raising an important question about how AI might reshape or erase the role of journalists in the process.

Unfortunately, Hirsch failed to acknowledge multiple concerns about AI during the summit and whenever it was brought up, he acted as if he was not sure how AI would become more advanced in the future, which is odd to me, seeing how he works at the company developing AI (OpenAI | ChatGPT). Are you really trying to tell us you have not a single idea or some sort of knowledge on what the future holds for AI, especially in the media industry?

But I do have one question for Hirsch.

What happens when the goal is achieved? AI takes everything off a journalist’s, TV producer’s, and on-air talent’s plate, ultimately leaving them without a job. Is that the progress you seek to have? Is your goal to make media jobs easier by just erasing them? It seems to me you are ok with this change, finding it neceIssary.

“The displacement concerns are real: some jobs will change, some will shrink and some will disappear,” Hirsch said in an interview with Ole Reissmann. “The goal must be to help bring people through the change, not leave them behind.”

A necessary change, you say? Journalists should have to work under strict deadlines to build a story, conduct research, or transcribe interviews; that is the whole point of the job.

A journalist’s job is to tell stories of the people and keep people who assert power over others in check. The latter is something the tech oligarchs Hirsch works for would love to see scattered to the winds.

Nobody in the media wants to rely on emotionless, robotic AI software to put content or stories together. If that is how you want journalism to work, is it really journalism anymore? I will answer that for you; it isn’t and he knows it.

The whole situation was backwards, wrong and out of touch… it just did not make sense to platform someone like this at one of these events.