Lasse Edfast

@lasse.edfast.se

🕵️‍♂️ Journalist & documentary producer
🧪 Reporting on climate & science
👨‍💻 Writing code in Python
🇸🇪 Based in Sweden

I'm at #Dataharvest and will be speaking a lot about how journalist can use AI for research. A few of them will want to make a chatbot to solve their problems, and I will show them this. If you're here, let's have a drink!

A flowchart to decide if you should build a chatbot or rather make your data structured and easy for you to understand.

One thing I unironically love about Bluesky is that I'm confident I could assemble, from the folks I follow, a top-notch team of experts in ridiculously unrelated fields to solve a major crime. Need a microbiologist, an art historian, a database expert, & someone who can do 73 pull-ups? No problem!

Any climate researchers out there going to the #HandsOff protests in the LA area tomorrow? I’m working on a story for Swedish Radio about climate science under the new administration - and reactions to it - so would love to meet up with some scientists.

Journalists and others using ChatGPT/AI in your work: are you a "threat" to OpenAI/anyone involved in your AI? Can you even answer that question? “Threat actors sometimes give us a glimpse of what they are doing (...) because of the way they use our A.I. models.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/t...

OpenAI Uncovers Evidence of A.I.-Powered Chinese Surveillance Tool (Gift Article)

The company said a Chinese operation had built the tool to identify anti-Chinese posts on social media services in Western countries.

nytimes.com

As someone teaching AI to journalists and developing tools for journalistic research using AI, I often wonder: how can we journalists use AI for research without losing touch with reality? For what purposes and when should we use AI, and what are the risks?

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2y ago

So @cbo.bsky.social and I have a new piece out in SciAm. We look at the drive by OpenAI, Apple, etc to create personally-aligned LLMs as intermediaries between users and primary text on the internet, and consider the possible consequences on society as any shared understanding of the world erodes.

How would you want to use a tool like Google’s #NotebookLM if it were private and tailored for science reporting? I've now built a chatroom with different personas, a podcast generator, an AI-assisted RSS reader. Any other ideas? And: It will soon be ready for some initial users!

Lasse Edfast@lasse.edfast.se · 2y ago

I've been reporting on #science and #climate for many years, and I believe science reporting, in particular, can benefit greatly from #AI. That's why I'm building a tool to support science reporters. Are you interested in trying it out?

On my way to Brussels to join a panel at Agora for Journalism, discussing how AI can be used for investigative journalism. Would be happy to meet up if anyone else is there (like we did on Twitter 2009 when you still wanted to meet up with someone from that platform)

Are you a journalist struggling to report on EU? Generally, it's not easy for most journalists to report on the EU. Nevertheless, the EU is an indisputable superpower within Europe and a significant player in global areas such as climate change. With elections coming up, I wrote eu-bots.net 👇

EU Bots

eu-bots.net