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ShareAlike If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as you see here. © 2018-2019 FUTURE TODAY INSTITUTE 002 Welcome It’s been a difficult year for journalism, engaged in bad behavior.” are thousands of incredibly bright, As of the publication date, The media and technology. talented, conscientious people Future Today Institute’s annual trend Meanwhile, it appears as though working hard in our newsrooms, reports have garnered more than 7.5 A sitting United States president has the platforms distributing news within corporate media, and inside million cumulative views. We’re glad repeatedly called media “the enemy content are reluctant to address the tech companies, big and small. I’m to see so many leadership teams of the people” who publish only “fake problem head-on. Facebook, Twitter also energized by the incredible all around the world using these news” to confuse and mislead voters. and Google have each made some technology on the horizon—it will trends as part of a formal, ongoing On the same day that more than 350 efforts to confront the spread of not only help combat the spread of process to reduce risk, harness new newspapers ran thoughtful editorials misinformation, however in the digital misinformation, it will offer creative opportunities and drive change within explaining that journalists are not the realm attention is currency—and we solutions to funding quality news. their fields. enemy, that the president repeatedly keep proving the value of political assaulted the free press on Twitter, vitriol, trolling and salacious content. I’m reminded of something Helen Regardless of what the next news arguing that “THE FAKE NEWS Keller once said. “Optimism is the cycle brings, always remember that At the same time, we’ve seen MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. faith that leads to achievement. the future is not yet written. It really the closure of even more news It is very bad for our Great Country…. Nothing can be done without hope is up to you and your organization. organizations in the past year, from BUT WE ARE WINNING!” followed and confidence.” I look at the horizon, You have the power to create your the Village Voice, to a number of by “There is nothing that I would and at the people working within our preferred future, today. regional GateHouse newspapers, to want more for our Country than true newsrooms, and I feel optimistic—but Interview Magazine. There have been FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact I know there’s hard work ahead. layoffs everywhere. Tronc cut the is that the Press is FREE to write and Sincerely, Daily News staff in half, for example— That’s the reason we’ve put together say anything it wants, but much of and this time around, new digital this industry-specific report. I hope what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing upstarts including Buzzfeed, Gizmodo it will help your organization see a political agenda or just plain trying Media Group, the Outline, Vice and opportunity as you plan for the to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!” A Upworthy have also been forced to future. Factor these trends into your week earlier, a stunning Ipsos poll Amy Webb reorganize. strategic thinking for the coming year, showed that 43% of Republicans and adjust your planning, operations Founder say that the president “should have And yet, I feel hopeful about the and business models accordingly. The Future Today Institute the authority to close news outlets year ahead. That’s because there © 2018-2019 FUTURE TODAY INSTITUTE 003 This is a robust, detailed report with 108 trends that cover many different themes and areas. The sprawling nature of this annual report was inten- tional. That’s because the future of journalism, media and technology is influenced by myriad dependencies. You cannot know the future of your field without looking broadly. To meaningfully plan for the future, organizations must listen for signals actively rather than reflex- ively. It is important to view your field through different lenses, considering adjacent sources of disruption. In the coming months, we hope that you’ll spend time with all of the analysis in our 2019 Journalism, Media and Technology Industry Trends Report. © 2018-2019 FUTURE TODAY INSTITUTE 004 Table of Contents 03 Welcome Letter 26 Real-Time Context in Machine 33 Proprietary, Homegrown 62 Distributed Computing For Learning AI Languages a Cause 07 Executive Summary 26 Generative Algorithms For 33 AI Chipsets 66 Decentralized Curation 08 Key Takeaways Voice, Sound and Video 34 Marketplaces For AI Algorithms 68 Interfaces 09 Methodology 27 Image Completion 34 More Consolidation in AI 69 Voice Interfaces 10 How To Monitor Trends and 27 AI For Seeing Through Walls Signals In Your Organization 34 AI For Deep Linking Everywhere 71 Monetizing Chat-Based 27 Predictive Machine Vision Journalism 12 How Your Organization Can 35 Making AI Explain Itself Take Action On Emerging 27 New Generative Modeling 74 New Video and Audio Story Trends Techniques 35 Accountability and Trust Formats 13 How To Use Our Report 27 Much Faster Deep Learning 36 China’s AI Boom 76 Teaching and Newsroom Training 14 Why We Include Scenarios 27 Reinforcement Learning and 37 I-Teams For Algorithms and Data With Trends Hierarchical RL 77 Adaptive Learning For 38 Computational Journalism Newsrooms 15 When, Exactly, To Take Action 28 Continuous Learning 39 Computational Photography On Tech Trends 78 Nanodegrees For Journalists 28 Multitask Learning 40 Computational Journalism 16 Our Trends Aren’t Trendy 79 Publishing and Distribution 28 Adversarial Machine Learning 41 Faceprints 17 The 10 Sources of All 80 Web 3.0 29 A Bigger Role For Ambient Future Change 43 Voiceprints Interfaces 82 Proximity News and Information 19 Artificial Intelligence 44 Blockchain Technologies 29 Digital Assistants Become 83 Digital Frailty 22 Natural Language Generation Ubiquitous 53 Tokenomics 85 The Case For Radical 25 Natural Language 30 AI For the Creative Process 55 Tokens For Smart Royalties Transparency Understanding (NLU) and Freelancers 31 Bots 86 Pop-Up Newsrooms and Limited- 25 Machine Reading 58 Immutable Journalism Edition News Products Comprehension (MRC) 33 Ongoing Bias In AI 60 Self-Sovereign Identity 87 One-To-Few Publishing 25 Real-Time Machine Learning 33 The AI Cloud © 2018-2019 FUTURE TODAY INSTITUTE 005 Table of Contents 88 Abusing The Notification Laye 107 Wearables 119 Faster Connectivity With 5G 139 The Right To Eavesdrop/ Be Eavesdropped On 89 Journalism as a Service (JaaS) 109 Smart Glasses 120 The Media Business 139 Anonymity 90 Transparency in Metrics 109 Hearables / Earables 121 Media Consolidation 139 Trolls 91 Real-Time Fact Checking 109 Head Mounted Displays 126 Ad Blockers 140 Authenticity 92 Offline Connections 109 Haptics 129 Policy and Regulation 140 Data Retention 93 Audio Search Engines 109 Thinkables 130 Splinternets 140 Ownership 94 Mixed Reality and Video 110 Embedables 131 Leaking 140 Encryption Management 95 Streamers 110 Smartwatches 133 The First Amendment in a Digital Age 141 Constant Audio Surveillance 95 Connected TVs 112 Hardware 135 Security and Privacy 141 Leaky Data 96 WebRTC 113 CubeSats 137 Compliance Challenges and 146 About the Authors 96 Streaming Social Video 115 Drone Delivery Unrealistic Budgets 147 About the Future Today Institute 96 360-Degree Video 115 Increasing Patents and Calls 137 Differential Privacy For New Regulation 148 Disclaimer 98 Holograms 137 Ransomware As A Service 115 Drone Lanes 149 The Signals Are Talking 99 Virtual Reality 137 Hacktivism On The Rise 116 Sense And Avoid Technology 150 Companies, Organizations, 101 Augmented Reality 138 Targeted Attacks on Digital Universities and Government 116 Microdrones and Drones Used Assistants Agencies Mentioned In Our 103 AR Face Filters to Protect In Dangerous/ Hard-To-Reach 2019 Journalism, Media and Individual’s identity Areas 138 Strange Computer Glitches Will Technology Industry Trends Keep Happening Report. 103 AR as a Tool to Enhance Print 116 Drone Swarms 138 Proliferation of Darknets, Aided 104 Mixed Reality Arcades 155 Contact Information 117 Searching The Internet of By Cryptocurrencies Physical Things 106 VR For Marketing 139 New Open Source App 118 Intelligent Cameras Vulnerabilities © 2018-2019 FUTURE TODAY INSTITUTE 006 Executive Summary This is the second annual edition of FTI’s 2019 Journalism, Media and Industry Trends Report. It follows the same approach as our popular FTI Annual Trend Report, now in its 11th year.