About Us

The Journalism Watchdogs were created by Dr. Brett Oppegaard of The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in the summer of 2024 as a way to test the efficacy and usefulness of Large Language Models and AI interfaces in a context of Journalism education. They are intended to simulate the feedback a student might get from a professor, or a professional writing coach, about a specific aspect of a particular piece of journalistic writing. In other words, the humans still are in charge. People pick their story ideas. They choose how to report and write their pieces. A person must make a significant story draft to get any useful feedback from these 'Dogs. The 'Dogs are not intended as fix-alls. They are specialists, addressing common journalistic writing and reporting issues. They each focus on a specific area and aim to provide feedback to the journalist to help that writer to address that area of concern. For more background, visit the full About Us page.