Journalism and AI: a global survey

Our latest research report, Generating Change, surveyed 105 news organisations from 46 countries about their engagement with AI and associated technologies. This report was conducted between April and July 2023 and was supported by the Google News Initiative.

Almost three quarters (73%) of news organisations surveyed believe generative AI (genAI), such as ChatGPT or Google Bard, presents new opportunities for journalism.

Around 85% of survey respondents — including journalists, technologists and managers at news organisations — have at the very least experimented with genAI to help with tasks such as writing code, image generation and authoring summaries.

Some respondents noted that AI can help free up capacity for more creative work by helping with time-intensive tasks such as interview transcription and fact-checking. A France based AI strategy analyst who was part of the survey, noted: “GenAI can change the way we interact with information, allowing us to grasp massive amounts of data, and level the playing field between high and low data skills.”

Respondents pointed out the affordances of genAI technologies, such as their accessibility, low requirements for technical skills, and what was described as their ability to understand “context”, which make them stand out from other AI technologies that generally require deep specialist expertise in areas like programming.

Despite these opportunities, respondents recognised the need for any AI generated content to be checked by a human to mitigate potential harms like bias and inaccuracy. A debunking editor at a Spanish fact checking platform noted: “No matter how advanced AI becomes, human criteria will always be essential in the whole fact-checking process.”

More than 60% of respondents noted their concern about the ethical implications of AI on journalistic values including accuracy, fairness and transparency and other aspects of journalism.

While newsrooms globally contend with challenges related to AI integration, the challenges are more pronounced for newsrooms in the Global South. Respondents highlighted language, infrastructural, and political challenges. They noted how the social and economic benefits of AI tend to be geographically concentrated in the Global North, where there is better infrastructure and easier access to resources. Meanwhile, many countries in the Global South grapple with the social, cultural, and economic repercussions of post-independence colonialism.

A Philippines based respondent commented: “AI technologies developed have been predominantly available in English, but not in many Asian languages…We have to catch up doubly to create AI systems, and AI systems that work with our local languages.”

With 80% of respondents expecting an increased use of AI in their newsrooms, the report’s authors believe this is a crucial opportunity “for ‘good’ journalists to do more ‘human’ work with the support of AI.”

Charlie Beckett is director of the LSE JournalismAI project which is supported by the Google News Initiative