Examples of machine learning in journalism – AI in Media and Society

Following on from yesterday's post, today I looked at more lessons in Introduction to Machine Learning from the Google News Initiative. The separation of machine learning into three different approaches -- supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning -- is standard (Lesson 3). In keeping with the course's focus on journalism applications of ML, the example given for supervised learning is The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's deservedly famous investigative story about sex abuse of patients by doctors. Supervised learning was used to sort more than 100,000 disciplinary reports on doctors. The example of unsupervised learning is one I hadn't seen before.