An ‘AI in newsrooms’ global survey has been published by POLIS, the London School of Economics (LSE) think tank, together with the Google News Initiative. It reports data gathered from more than 120 editors, journalists, technologies and media makers from 105 news and media organisations across 46 countries for April-July 2023.

The survey shows that while AI in newsrooms is now broadly deployed, this technology is most used for news production (90 per cent), news distribution (80 per cent), and newsgathering (75 per cent), as shown in the table below.

STAT 1 – Use of AI in newsrooms

To ensure the best use, the survey highlights the need to develop a more strategic approach to adoption. Data collected from participants showed that many newsrooms do not have formal strategies for the implementation of AI. The responsibility to develop and lead AI integration is different from one newsroom to the other.

STAT 2 – Who leads on AI strategy and implementation?

The survey found that newsrooms are dedicating time and resources to building their AI capacities. The direct impact of AI integration efforts on their workflows and processes, as well as existing roles within newsrooms, is not yet noticeable but is expected to grow in the future.

The research raises questions about the readiness and preparedness of newsrooms to handle AI, especially after the arrival of generative AI (genAI), which poses a fresh set of challenges.

Asked to report the strategic challenges to AI adoption, newsrooms pointed to technical challenges as their main issue (41 per cent), followed by ethical challenges (25 per cent), cultural challenges (22 per cent), and managerial challenges (12 per cent).

STAT 3 – The most pressing challenges for AI integration in the newsroom

One of the main concerns to the integration of AI in journalism relates to ethics, especially given the profession’s role in serving the public interest. Over 60 per cent of respondents expressed worries about the ethical implications of AI, particularly regarding editorial quality.

Key ethical issues include bias, editorial independence, transparency, verification, data ethics, and the role of human judgment. While integrating AI technologies, journalists must also maintain core values such as accuracy, fairness, accountability, and transparency.

STAT 4 – Newsroom concerns for AI’s ethical implications

There is a consensus among responders that genAI technologies present new opportunities for newsrooms, especially in ‘generating copy’, like summaries and headlines, personalised distribution, research and brainstorming.

Respondents were, however, divided on whether genAI poses unique challenges in the newsroom compared to other AI technologies. While 52 per cent were unsure, 40 per cent believed genAI introduces new challenges.

Many felt that the challenges presented by genAI are not fundamentally different from those posed by other AI, but the key difference is that genAI tends to exacerbate these issues, potentially leading to greater harm.

STAT 5 – Do generative AI technologies present new opportunities or challenges?

New data collected by a recent newsroom cohort hosted by Trusting News and Online News Association shows a majority of news consumers want journalists to disclose how and why they use AI in their journalism.

The survey results show that news consumers are less comfortable with journalists using AI for tasks such as translation and data analysis for investigative stories, while they are more comfortable with AI being used to check spelling or grammar and transcribe interviews.

STAT 6 – How comfortable are you with journalists using AI?

An overwhelming majority of 93.8 per cent of the respondents say they want journalists to disclose their use of AI, only 2.9 per cent said they did not, while 3 per cent were not sure about it.

News consumers found it important to know why journalists decided to use AI in the reporting process. This would help them understand how journalists will work to be ethical and accurate with their use of AI. For them, it is important to know whether a human was involved in the process and reviewed the content before it was published.

STAT 7 – Should journalists disclose their use of AI?

Despite concerns relating to trust issues and the need to build defences in countering the disinformation pollution that AI exacerbates, the use of AI technologies in various businesses across the European Union is on the rise.

Eurostat data for 2023 shows that 8 per cent of enterprises with ten or more employees used these technologies to conduct their business. The highest share of enterprises using AI are, not surprisingly, information and communication enterprises.

STAT 8 – Enterprises using AI technologies by economic activity, EU, 2023

[Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]