Global concerns about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in news production and misinformation are growing, a report published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found, posing fresh challenges to newsrooms already struggling to engage audiences.
The institute’s annual Digital News Report published on Monday, which this year is based on surveys of nearly 100,000 people across 47 countries, offers a picture of the hurdles news media faces in lifting revenue and sustaining business, Reuters reported.
Newsrooms globally are working to address a new challenge with generative AI, as tech giants and start-ups like Google and OpenAI build tools that can offer summaries of information and siphon traffic from news websites.
But the report found that consumers are suspicious about the use of AI to create news content, particularly for sensitive subjects such as politics.
According to the survey, 52 per cent of US respondents and 63 per cent of UK respondents said they would be uncomfortable with news produced mostly with AI. The report surveyed 2,000 people in each country, noting that respondents were more comfortable with behind-the-scenes uses of AI to make journalists’ work more efficient.
“It was surprising to see the level of suspicion,” said Nic Newman, senior research associate at the Reuters Institute and lead author of the Digital News Report. “People broadly had fears about what might happen to content reliability and trust.”