Morano asks whether legacy and AI/press-release outlets are treated alike
Morano poses a hypothetical: a 50-year-old paper with original reporting versus a new AI-driven or press-release operation serving the same audience. Sidahmed says he wants a community conversation about those standards.
And we're all rooting for you, I think.
I mean, and we're wishing you the best of luck with that goal.
Let me give you a hypothetical.
Say there are two neighborhood newspapers that serve essentially the same audience, right?
One's been around.
That and I, Elaine.
One's been around for 50 years, has a small staff, and publishes original reporting.
The other is sort of what Councilmember Ressler was alluding to earlier, a relatively new operation that either uses AI or just mostly republishes press releases.
Are they treated identically for purposes of your directory?
Does original reporting count for anything, or is it strictly a question of reaching a particular audience?
It's a great, I really just want to say thank you for the question and the level of detail and thought around this issue.
But I do think this, as I said, is something that I want to be made as a community.
I really do want us to convene a conversation that includes publishers, independent voices, people like yourself who have detailed understanding of this problem.
Because I do think that the question of the agencies being able to reach the most people through these community media outlets and ensuring that we're sustaining that civic function
that I mentioned in my testimony are two really important pillars and goals and live up to the spirit of local law 83, which I think is critical.