Where Journalism
meets intelligence
I'm Gabriel Elizondo, and for 21 years I've been a journalist with Al Jazeera English. Today I cover diplomacy and global affairs from the United Nations in New York. During my journalism career I've reported from more than a dozen countries on assignment. I built a bureau in Brazil and covered all 26 of its states, end to end across a continent-sized country, and reported on elections across South America, the war in Ukraine, the pandemic from New York, illegal gold mines and drug labs deep in the Amazon in Brazil and Peru, and the launch of Al Jazeera English's coverage of the Americas from Washington.
I'm curious about other countries and cultures, and I've had the privilege to visit 64 and counting. To me, that is very much a privilege.
I came to journalism almost by accident. I studied conflict resolution in undergrad, and international economics in grad school. I thought I would be a diplomat or an international banker. But I got pulled into reporting along the way and never pulled myself out.
Here's the deal: nothing will ever replace on-the-ground, exclusive reporting. There's no substitute, and I can attest to that firsthand.
For many years as a foreign correspondent, I found the most intimidating (and exhilarating) moment was walking off a plane in a foreign country, sometimes without knowing the local language, and having to find a story. It involved finding people. Talking to people. Getting the facts straight, keeping it precise, and making the story matter to viewers. All on a deadline. Sometimes I had to file a story only hours after getting off the plane!
That's how AI feels to me now: a little intimidating, but also exhilarating. The same feeling I had getting off the plane for a reporting assignment is how I feel about where AI is going right now. I can see where AI is headed, and I don't want to watch from the sidelines.
So I started experimenting and making things using AI tools. I learn these tools by using them, sometimes breaking them, and putting them to work on real problems, information, and workflows. This site you are reading now is one of them, built hands-on, in the tools themselves. In this case, Claude Code.
"We are currently in the 'Between Times.' We see the potential of AI, but our organizational systems haven't fully adjusted."
Ajay Agrawal, University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management
The instinct I bring to it is simple: make things that are honest about what they can and can't do. Systems that flag uncertainty instead of papering over it, and that hold up under pressure. And, this is key, earn trust rather than assume it. That holds true in any field. In AI. In journalism.
So I collaborate, and I learn out loud. I ask questions. I try things. I share what works, and what doesn't. I am grounded in over 20 years of doing serious journalism work in high-stakes environments under deadline, not just theorizing about the technology without knowing how it will work when deployed in real-life situations.
AI for everybody is in its early stages, and it's moving fast. That's exactly why I'd rather be in it, building and collaborating, than watching it pass by.
The AI plane has landed. Looking forward to meeting you at arrivals and getting to work!