Kia Kokalitcheva, Senior Editor at Pitchbook, moderates a conversation on AI Reporting with Fast Company's Mark Sullivan, Bloomberg's Shirin Ghaffary, and TechCrunch's Maxwell Zeff at Media Summit | SF 2025.
How should we think about AI Reporting?
Moderator Kia Kokalitcheva sits down with Shirin Ghaffary (Bloomberg), Mark Sullivan (Fast Company), and Maxwell Zeff (TechCrunch) to sort what is real, what is working, and what is still wishful thinking. They cover the early “holy shit” moments, why full job takeover is harder than the slides suggest, where agents break in the real world, how they actually use AI in reporting, and the most uncomfortable story they have covered so far.
What you will learn
Chapters
00:00 Intro. What makes this AI wave different
00:00:13 Shirin on a new kind of “intelligence” that felt like science fiction
00:01:07 Maxwell on how new the field still is and why newcomers can contribute
00:01:49 Mark on compute, GPUs, and why the “magic” surprised everyone
00:02:56 Early skepticism. Chatbots of 2015 vs ChatGPT
00:04:52 “Holy s***” moments and the limits seen in early Copilot demos
00:06:41 What the panel is still skeptical about
00:06:49 Shirin on why full job replacement is a long road
00:08:14 Maxwell on chatbots vs agents and what feels far off
00:09:04 Mark’s agent‑first reality check
00:10:31 The most uncomfortable story to cover
00:10:49 Maxwell on SB 1047 and a divided AI community
00:12:15 How the panel actually uses AI in their work
00:12:30 Maxwell’s “find the holes” edit pass with AI
00:13:19 Mark on research, triangulation, and why he avoids AI writing
00:14:39 Shirin on using AI for structure and why writing sharpens thinking
00:15:54 Will AI replace journalists
00:16:11 What AI still cannot do in real reporting
00:16:50 Wrap
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