CAPSUNIAN ECHO

𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗠𝗡 | AY, A.I?: WHY THE REAL ECHO MATTERS 

by Joshua Dela Torre

I remember the first time my story was published in our school paper. My hands were shaking as I flipped through the pages. There it was—my name under the headline, my words out in the world. It was not perfect, but it was mine. I had asked hard questions, stayed up late writing, and rewrote the same paragraph five times, and in the end, it mattered.

Now, that same kind of story can be written in seconds by a bot. Suddenly, I’m left wondering: If A.I. can do the writing, do student voices still matter?

Artificial intelligence is now part of our ever-shifting world. It writes essays, answers emails, and yes, even writes news articles. In some student publications, AI is already being used to write short reports, fix grammar, and make content “better.”

But “better” doesn’t always mean braver, and that’s where the danger begins.

Real journalism, is not about perfect sentences. It is about echoing the truth. It about sitting down with someone who’s scared to speak up and promising, “I will tell your story right.” AI doesn’t feel that. AI doesn’t care. But student journalists do.

Some people say A.I. is “just a tool,” that it helps make our jobs easier, and yes, tools can be helpful. Spellcheck helps. But what happens when we stop writing our own thoughts and just let AI do it all? We stop thinking. We stop feeling. We stop owning our stories. If A.I. writes our articles, who are we as campus journalists? We’re not here to copy and paste. We’re here to question, to investigate, to speak up when others stay silent. We write the stories others are afraid to write, and that can’t be done by a bot. It takes heart, it takes an echoing bravery.

In every newsroom, there will be nights when we’re tired, stressed, and tempted to let A.I. “just write it.” But remember this: a machine can write your report, but it can’t care if you have a "singko" grade. It can’t feel the fear in a student's voice after being silenced. It can’t choose truth over safety. It can’t be brave. 

Real echo—the one that shakes walls and sparks change—doesn’t come from a chatbot, it comes from students who relentlessly refuse to be quiet. We are not just writing for today, we are learning to fight for truth because lies will prevail if there are no journalists—good journalists.