AI use in newsrooms worldwide 2023
According to 56 percent of industry leaders surveyed in December 2023, back-end automation would be the most important use of artificial intelligence in newsrooms in 2024. Additionally, utilizing AI for distribution and recommendations such as personalized home pages and alerts was considered necessary for future business operations. News gathering was ranked as the least important use of AI, with only 22 percent of publishers feeling this would be important for their company in 2024.
The ethics of AI in the newsroom
Data from news and media organizations around the world revealed concerns about the ethical implications of AI in the newsroom. More than 80 percent of respondents said they were concerned about the ethics of AI when it came to editorial quality and the industry in general – but readers’ perceptions were less of a worry. Readers themselves, on the other hand, have priorities of their own – a UK study found that the majority of adults believed that media organizations should be required to display the ways AI was used to create a news article.
The issue of trust
News organizations should be mindful of how their readers feel about the use of AI in news – UK consumers are especially skeptical about the idea of an AI journalist and AI editor working on online news without human assistance. At a time when trust in human journalists is already relatively low, introducing AI into the mix could further damage public trust in the news and those reporting on it.
