Earlier this week, we shared the story of a middle Georgia pizzeria which used so much AI that one local diner felt compelled to complain. While that episode ended happily, the stakes for small businesses navigating the current technological landscape are high. Which AI interventions are genuinely cost effective? Which ones violate customer trust? What’s safe? What’s legal?
And, most importantly, where do the ethical boundaries lie?
Here at The Food Section, we use AI sparingly and flag those instances prominently. If you’ve been listening to the audio versions of our stories, for example, you hear good ol’ AI “Bill” introduce every reading by saying, “The Food Section always discloses when it uses AI for any reason.” That’s no hallucination on Bill’s part: We would never publish any audio or infographics without signaling AI’s involvement.
Really, though, there’s little call for the disclaimer because Bill’s an outlier. We otherwise don’t use generative AI. Every word you read from The Food Section—whether in the newsletter, on our website, or through social media channels—is written and edited by real people like me, headlines and cutlines included. Similarly, we never use AI to create images: The world doesn’t need more junk.
But for a tiny newsroom like ours, AI’s capacity to uncover existing information and recognize possible patterns in data and documents is hugely helpful. Because those operations take place behind the scenes, they’re difficult to label, which is why I want to tell you about them here.
First, on the reportorial front, TFS earlier this year built a news scraper to turn up potential story leads. Every day, our little agent (who sadly doesn’t have a cute name like Bill) scours Subreddits in a dozen Southern cities and towns, evaluating each post on the following criteria:
Does this concern a restaurant, bar, food business, or food worker in a substantive way? If yes, does it contain any of the following: described wage theft, unsafe conditions, discrimination, retaliation, sexual harassment, or other harm to workers or vulnerable people in a food business; described conflict between owners and workers, between a business and a community, between a food institution and the people it claims to serve; or expressed community reaction to a food business opening, closing, or changing? Answer yes or no with a one-sentence reason.
Then, the answers populate a Google Sheet for me to review. Again, no AI agent gets editorial authority around here.
Obviously, this tool in no way guarantees we catch every story taking shape across the region. Not even close. But it does in minutes what would take me hours to accomplish if I just went browsing.
Second, when it comes to business administration, AI’s terrific at making up for yawning gaps in my expertise. I don’t have a clue how potential advertisers size up a media kit, for example, so I’m not above asking Claude to review what I’ve put together and identify missing elements from a buyer’s perspective. AI’s also good at evaluating my sad stabs at graphic design and suggesting possible revisions.
Most recently, I asked both Claude and ChatGPT to take a look at last year’s printed map for Spirited Brunch, our annual self-guided snack tour of downtown Charleston’s prayerful spaces, and assess “whether this brochure serves its intended purpose: making sure people can plot their routes with confidence.”
Both returned the same insightful answer: Kinda, but not completely. The problem was I’d listed the congregations alphabetically, even though their names have no relation to their locations.
And thus ended AI’s contribution to Spirited Brunch map development, save for a final quality check. Armed with the advice to order participating houses of worship by geography, I created a new design from scratch. Check it out!
The map isn’t all that’s new for Spirited Brunch this year. In the coming weeks, we’ll tell you lots more about what’s in store for our signature event. In the meantime, though, mark your calendars to join us: As always, Spirited Brunch is completely free, and there’s no pre-registration required. Hope to see you on:
SUNDAY, MAY 3, 12:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Have a great weekend.
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