Good morning! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Chris.

Microsoft's robot editor confuses mixed-race Little Mix singers — www.theguardian.com

It was inevitable that MSN's robot editor would make a mistake. The speed with which it actually happened is surprising, however. We were only discussing Microsoft's decision to ditch human editorial staff a fortnight ago, and already the tool has managed to mix up two mixed-race singers - an error that would have been bad enough anyway, but happened to come right at the peak of another debate about media representation of BAME people.

AI tools undoubtedly have their place in the newsroom. They are necessary to free journalists up from the arduous task of busywork to concentrate instead on the aspects of journalism that actually add value to an audience. However, as we said in the episode two weeks ago, when those tools are misapplied it leads to mistakes such as this one. You need a human hand on the tiller.

More, we need to be more open about the fact that algorithms are not objective and without prejudice. They reflect the attitudes and unconscious biases of their creators, and when misapplied in the journalistic process can lead to mistakes and twisted, warped reflections of reality. We can't afford that - least of all right now.

Covid-19’s impact on the media in 8 charts — whatsnewinpublishing.com

One from friend of Media Voices Damian Radcliffe here. One of the driving questions of the pandemic for publishers is whether the habits audiences form during unprecedented times will persist once this is all over. In this article, Damian examines the evidence for and against that likelihood.

Telegraph follows Spectator to pay back furlough money after subscriptions reach 500,000 — www.pressgazette.co.uk

The Daily Telegraph is the latest publication to pay back the cash money it received from the government, after its performance during the crisis has outpaced its expectations. 500,000 is nothing to sneeze at - though the publication has a way to go to hit its ambitious targets.

EJC launches Freelance Journalism Assembly to support the self-employed community — www.journalism.co.uk

Some good news to finish. Our friends at journalism.co.uk report on the European Journalism Centre's new scheme to help self-employed journalists. As we discussed in our Freelance Special, there isn't all that much support out there, so this is very welcome indeed.

Podcast:

WSJ Newsroom Innovation Chief Robin Kwong on developing features for a news brand — voices.media

Robin Kwong talks about how his team develops features to help the WSJ's wider goals, how he helps facilitate innovation across teams in the business, and how his background in reporting and data journalism has helped his approach to this role.