We are all seeing a steady flow of stories about the growing role of artificial intelligence in daily life. It therefore seems like the right time to explain how the Spy is using AI to help cover local government in the counties we serve.
To start on a lighter note, the Spy really does “spy” on local government. Since our founding in 2009, we have spent countless hours following town councils, county commissioners, planning commissions, school boards, and other public meetings across the Mid-Shore. That work has always been central to our mission.
What has changed is not our commitment, but the tools available to carry it out.
In the early years, much of this work depended on experienced journalists like retired Associated Press reporter John Lang in Chestertown and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Richard Cooper in Talbot County. They attended the meetings they believed mattered most and, as our archives show, produced exceptional journalism. But with a small staff and limited resources, we could not be everywhere. As John liked to say, our motto might have been “all the news that we have time for.”
As those generous friends of the Spy gradually stepped away from weekly reporting, we turned increasingly to video. Affordable camcorders, and later iPhones, allowed us to record meetings for later review. Freelance reporters and editors could then watch the footage, identify important issues, and prepare stories. It expanded our reach, but the process remained expensive and limited us to only a handful of meetings each month.
Then COVID changed everything.
Local governments quickly adopted livestreaming and virtual meetings. While those systems were far from perfect, they gave both the public and the Spy access to entire meetings from almost anywhere. Our writers could review recordings, move more efficiently through lengthy agendas, and spend more time deciding what was truly newsworthy. That change also helped us expand our coverage into communities such as Cambridge and Centreville.
The next shift came in September 2024, when I interviewed a rising senior at The Gunston School who had recently explained artificial intelligence to the school’s Board of Trustees. As I listened to him describe its potential, it occurred to me that AI could significantly change how the Spy covered local government.
Over the past two years, we have carefully experimented with using AI to review lengthy public meetings, organize information, and identify issues that deserve closer attention. We have learned where it can save time and expand our reach. We have also learned where human judgment remains essential.
AI can help us find the story. It cannot decide what the story means.
Beginning this month, many of these reports will appear under the byline “Spy Public Affairs Desk.” That byline reflects a process we have been building over the past two years: experienced Spy journalists using AI as a reporting tool while retaining full editorial responsibility for every story we publish.
The process is straightforward. A public meeting is recorded or streamed. AI helps summarize the discussion and identify issues that may deserve attention. A Spy writer then returns to the original recording or transcript, verifies names, facts, quotations, and context, determines what is truly newsworthy, and writes or edits the final story before publication.
This approach will allow the Spy to cover many more public meetings than our current resources would otherwise permit. Instead of following only a few meetings each month, we will be able to monitor a much broader range of local government activity and identify important issues as they arise.
The goal is not simply to publish more stories. It is to give our communities a clearer understanding of how local government works and to strengthen civic life across the Mid-Shore.
Local journalism is also stronger when the community is involved. Over the years, readers and volunteers have helped us catch errors, correct facts, question assumptions, and improve our reporting. When questions arise about accuracy, context, or fairness, we may ask people familiar with a meeting or issue to help us review the facts. Final editorial decisions, however, will always remain with the Spy.
This summer, we also plan to establish a Spy accountability review process led by community volunteers. Its purpose will be to provide a clear way to raise concerns about the accuracy or fairness of our reporting and to help us maintain the trust of our readers.
The Spy has always been strengthened by its partnership with the communities we serve. As we begin this next chapter, our goal is simple: to cover more of local government while maintaining the same human judgment, accuracy, and accountability our readers expect.
Dave Wheelan
Publisher
