How AI helped America Amplified engagement journalists respond to thousands of election-related questions

By Stephanie Rivera and Caitlin Biljan

Credit: William_Potter from Getty Images

This past year, America Amplified embarked on an ambitious journey to use artificial intelligence to help partner public media stations across the country better meet their communities’ information needs. With the help of a data analytics firm called 9B we created a digital platform or portal that provided answers to audience questions about the election. The questions were uploaded into the portal from a Hearken digital embed on station websites. 

The platform – which we called the Election Information Portal or EIP – worked like this: verified secretary of state websites with election information from every state were uploaded to the portal. We also had the ability to add additional election information sources like articles from partner stations to answer audience questions. So when a question came into the portal from a partner station’s Hearken embed, the AI would select an answer from the relevant secretary of state’s website. As the engagement support staff reviewing questions and answers, we then had the option to keep, edit or delete the answer the AI suggested. 

We were careful to be absolutely transparent about using AI and we encouraged stations to publicize a note about the use.  We explained that “this tool usees generative AI to gather verified information from state election offices to respond to community and audience questions.  Responses are drafted using, in part, the information gathered by the GAI tool.  They are edited, revised and verified by America Amplified and public media station newsroom staff.”

Since its launch at the beginning of 2024, the portal has received over 2,000 submissions. We learned valuable lessons along the way as we confronted obstacles and found unexpected wins. Here’s a bit about what we learned. 

The wins

Answering non-election questions: While our project was focused solely on the 2024 election, we still found ourselves getting questions about other topics. While some people did ask us the kind of straightforward questions AI could find answers for in this limited system, far more people asked us complex, nuanced questions that required complex, nuanced answers. One example:  a listener to Montana Public Radio asked us if we could help track down the Indian boarding school his father attended. We were able to give him details to help him research the answer. 

Expanding the coverage area: We often came across submissions from a person who lived outside of the station’s coverage area. This was a reminder about the reach of our stories and how many of them cross state borders no matter how local we think they are. 

Quality over quantity: Some newsrooms had only a few questions, but often they were ones where the answer was truly useful. One newsroom with only about 10 reader submissions, had a question from someone wondering how to vote if they were hospitalized. We were able to help them cast their vote from their hospital bed.

Recognizing national themes: Because we were listening to so many stations across so many states, themes emerged and we learned what people were concerned about nationwide. You can read our midpoint report here and our final analysis here. 

Amplifying the power of Hearken: The portal’s most valuable use was its ability to become a type of email service provider, allowing for two-way communication. This was crucial to allow us to work more efficiently without having to leave the portal and go into an email. This also allowed us to capture not just the submissions we received, but the answers we sent back. 9b also helped us make the portal capable of mass custom exports so we could export data from multiple Hearken embeds at once (rather than one by one). The tech that 9b helped us build amplifies what Hearken can do.  

The challenges

The hard questions: Because it didn't crawl the entire internet, only the vetted websites, questions that could be answered with the help of other government databases, social media platforms or freshly published hyper-local stories were not reflected in the AI-generated answers.

We got questions that were hard to answer, such as : How do we fix homelessness? Help me pick a judge! Who are the committee members? In situations where stations did not have the bandwidth to report out a full answer, America Amplified crafted template responses that let submitters know we appreciated the time they took to reach out and we would send their questions to the newsroom. Other times, we went sleuthing and attempted to answer the questions ourselves. This took a lot of time and effort. 

Perhaps this is where AI could lend a bigger hand. In addition to using AI to find logistical answers quickly (as we first imagined,  perhaps AI could also help with the time-consuming research that answering complex, nuanced questions demands. For example, what if AI could comb through court rulings and shine a light on a judges’ voting records? It could help newsrooms create better guides for frustrated voters who want to know more about the judges they’re voting for. 

Spam and trolls: Early on, we realized we needed to be alert to things that didn’t sound like a human or plain gibberish. We got lots of “I like entering contests” and nonsensical series of numbers and/or letters. We added a dismissed status shortly after but could definitely have ued a built-in captcha type bot-catcher. We also needed a clear policy on engaging with angry, venting questioners.  One story that questioned Trumps status on the presidential ballot went viral, generating a gut of questions from furious readers.  

The advice

These challenges and unexpected wins gave us a lot of insight. Here is some advice we have for stations to prepare for the next election. 

Voter guide publication dates: If possible, time the release of your voter guides for when you know voters will start thinking about the election in earnest. Depending on where you live, this may be when voters receive their absentee ballots in the mail or when early voting centers open. 

Strategic partnerships: We understand some stations can’t cover every race on a ballot. Sometimes, though, there are other organizations that can help supplement coverage. Reach out and ask early so you know where to effectively direct resources. These can be statewide outlets like CalMatters, which focuses on policies, or Chalkbeat, which covers education in almost a dozen cities across the country. Nonpartisan groups like Ballotpedia or the League of Women Voters can provide information as well.

Transparency: If you can’t find partners to beef up your voter guide, or if they don’t fill all your coverage holes, it’s always important to be transparent with your audience about what is and what isn’t covered. An editor’s note or introduction in your newsletter goes a long way. You save them the time of searching endlessly on your website and getting frustrated or maybe even convince them to donate if they’d like to see more coverage in the future. 
Make content from what you hear: We saw some stations make great use of the reader submissions and answers we provided. The content was turned into FAQ posts, reported out stories or added to election pages or voter guides.

With the focused help of 9b, we optimized America Amplified’s Election Information Portal as much as we could. It has come a long way, but we can see it going even further, especially if we can use the knowledge gained from our recent election experience to inform and improve user experience and functionality. 

Stephanie Rivera and Caitlin Biljan served as engagement support staff for America Amplified across more than 50 public media stations in 45 states during the 2024 election.