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Worthington Essay

About the Worthington Essay Contest


In 2002, Plan II alumnus Roger Worthington (’80) provided funding for an annual essay prize in Plan II. Originally a single prize, Plan II now awards 3 prizes each year, including a first-year student prize. The essay topics have ranged from hypothetical scenarios to real-world events and always challenge students to form an argument on one side of a legal, medical, or ethical debate and present it convincingly. All current Plan II students are eligible to enter, and Plan II faculty members select the winning essays from among the submissions.

Grand Prize:  $5000
First-Year Prize: $3500 (best essay written by a first-year student)
Second Place Prize: $2500 

2023 Prize Winning Submissions - Artificial Intelligence & Journalism


Grand Prize: Will Jackson, Class of 2024
First-Year Prize: Samantha Ho, Class of 2027
Second Prize (tie): Vijay Davis, Class of 2027, and Brianne Johnson, Class of 2027

  • 2023 Essay Prompt: Artificial Intelligence & Journalism

    It is 2025, and you are a consultant at a major firm, specializing in the burgeoning field of human/AI labor optimization. When you and your team are brought onto projects, your task is to determine the ratio of human to artificially intelligent labor required at a given workplace. Your latest project is on behalf of Worldcomm, a leading multinational news/media organization that oversees several leading news and communications brands across the globe.

    Last year, the San Francisco View-Register (a Worldcomm property) debuted a controversial all-AI newsroom. Remaining human journalists were let go, or transitioned to administrative positions at the newspaper. The CEO of Worldcomm heralded this move as “an important step forward into the future of reporting.” In a statement, he elaborated: “News consumption is ever-changing, and in an environment where there is more demand for news, or newsworthy stories, than ever before, we are proud to announce that our focus-tested Intelligent Newsroom™ will produce more fact-checked, unbiased, to-the-minute news stories than a strictly human-powered newsroom would have the capacity for.”

    While the exact algorithm for the operation of the Intelligent Newsroom™ is a trade secret, many speculate that the AI “journalists” consume an impossible amount of news media from other sources and consolidate that data into cogent articles for public consumption. The AI journalists can conduct interviews with human subjects, and Worldcomm has already teased the development of drone journalists that could generate on-site reports from live data anywhere in the world. The CEO has also stressed the benefits of journalistic neutrality: AI can put together articles, according to him, without a shred of the bias or subjectivity that even the most fastidious human reporter couldn’t eschew.

    Following the View-Register’s announcement, a phalanx of journalists, academics, and intellectuals published an open letter decrying the Intelligent Newsroom™ as a move that “will increase the quotient of human stupidity,” which, they pointed out, was “the opposite of what good journalism should do.” Stacy DuBrow, the president of the News Guild, a labor union representing journalists, commented that “responsible journalism reveals the secrets of the powerful. To a team of artificial journalists—I hesitate to use the word ‘intelligent’—the world is only surface, and nothing is a secret. No journalism could happen in such a world, nothing that deserves the name journalism.” She added that “the irony is the View-Register still employs a team of human fact-checkers!” Already, there are several lawsuits working their way through the American judicial system, concerning plagiarism, defamation, and wrongful termination.

    The Worldcomm team has employed you to provide a recommendation for what to do next. They would like you to bring them a proposal, in 2000 words or fewer, for what their new newsroom should look like, whether all AI, all human, or some percentage of both. They are open to any recommendation, as long as it is backed up with your reasoning, and careful consideration of the special ethical dimensions involved in the use of artificial intelligence for journalism.

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2023 Entry Instructions

- Deadline:  MIDNIGHT, Monday, October 9, 2023
- Submit your essay via file upload hereNO LATE ENTRIES.
- At the top of your essay, please include your full name, eid, and class year
- Submit your entry as a PDF file using the following filename format: 
lastname_firstname_eid
- Students who receive financial aid should check with the UT Office of Student Financial Services to find out if winning a prize will affect their aid package.
- Questions or difficulty submitting? Email zack.schlosberg@utexas.edu

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