Titilope Fadare-Oparinde is a multimedia journalist and founder of Generative AI Journalism with Titi, an initiative dedicated to helping African journalists integrate artificial intelligence into their workflows ethically and creatively.
In this episode, Titi shares her journey from a Lagos-born journalist curious about both print and broadcast media to becoming a leading voice in AI literacy for African newsrooms. She recounts the moment she stumbled upon ChatGPT while writing a seminar paper and realized that what took weeks could be done in seconds. That discovery led her to ask a critical question: how can this tool help journalists? Titi explains how she prayed for direction, received a light bulb idea during a family devotion, and launched her initiative with personal resources and deep passion. She describes the initial resistance she faced when training older journalists who questioned what a young woman could teach them, and how she learned to acknowledge their fears, break down complex concepts, and create inclusive, hands-on learning experiences that shifted their mindset.
A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the gap between AI adoption and AI literacy in African newsrooms. Titi reveals that 95 per cent of Nigerian journalists use AI tools weekly, yet only 10 per cent have received structured training. She warns that newsrooms operating inside this gap risk publishing hallucinated information, reproducing Western biases, and exposing confidential sources. Titi walks listeners through the top three recurring issues she encounters: job loss fears, racial and contextual bias in AI-generated content, and hallucinations. She explains how she uses a simple exercise, asking participants to generate an image of a scientist, to reveal how AI defaults to a white man in a lab coat, and why inclusive prompting and context engineering are essential skills for African journalists. Titi also highlights initiatives like Africa No Filter's Africa Bias Buster, an AI tool designed to identify and remove bias in content, and emphasizes the importance of African journalists becoming co-architects of AI solutions and policies.
Titi closes with a powerful message to African women journalists: stop staying in the background. She urges them to ask questions, join decision-making processes, and be part of shaping AI governance and newsroom policies. She reminds listeners that AI will not take their jobs, but journalists who refuse to learn AI might lose theirs. Her advice is simple: start with what you have, stay curious, and never stop advancing yourself. For Titi, curiosity is not just a mindset; it is the foundation of resilience, innovation, and survival in a rapidly changing media landscape.
Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: Building a Media Career in the Age of AI * 00:01:06 Growing Up in Lagos: Early Journalism and the NYSC Experience * 00:02:05 From Mobile Journalism to AI: The Pandemic Pivot * 00:02:57 The Seminar Paper Moment: Discovering AI's Power * 00:04:37 The Training Gap: 95% Use AI, Only 10% Have Structured Training * 00:05:04 Resistance and Change: Navigating Newsroom Skepticism * 00:06:50 The Empathy Approach: Teaching Journalists Who Built Careers Without AI * 00:10:45 Founding Generative AI Journalism with Titi: A Prayer Answered * 00:12:08 Creative and Ethical Integration: Beyond Random AI Use * 00:14:11 AWIM Learning Platform: Courses for African Journalists * 00:14:59 Top Three Issues: Job Loss Fears, Bias, and Hallucinations * 00:16:20 The Scientist Exercise: Exposing Racial Bias in AI * 00:17:28 Prompt Engineering and the E-Book: Structured AI for Better Outputs * 00:19:36 Beyond Prompting: The Bigger Problem of AI Bias from the Global North * 00:21:25 Africa Bias Buster: An AI Tool to Identify and Remove Bias * 00:22:59 Start Where You Are: Advice for Journalists Who've Never Used AI * 00:25:07 The Human Editorial Factor: What AI Can't Replace * 00:26:32 Stay Curious: The One Thing That Changes Everything * 00:27:53 Women at the Table: Be Co-Architects of AI Solutions * 00:30:00* Closing Thoughts: Subscribe and Stay Curious
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Her Media Diary is produced by African Women in Media (AWiM). And this episode is sponsored by Luminate
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