A Filipino journalist has created a custom GPT tool to aid investigative reporters in finding potential stories in government audit reports more efficiently.
Why it matters: For years, journalists in the Philippines have reportedly grappled with deciphering convoluted government audit reports from agencies such as the Commission on Audit (COA). These reports often bury key findings deep within their pages.
How effective is it: While the current iteration of the COA Beat Assistant remains under development, it has been shown to save journalists significant time and effort. In one case, it helped a journalist quickly identify a potential story about millions of Philippine pesos purportedly being spent by one area on “Gender and Development” initiatives.
The tool, however, has some limitations on how many queries users can submit per month and exhibits some formatting and accuracy issues.
What’s next: According to Tordecilla, the tool could further be improved and even be adapted to work with other types of documents, such as financial statements and legal documents.
“Similar tools could be developed to help newsrooms and reporters deal with financial statements and annual reports from corporations, legal documents, environmental impact…
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