• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 10, 2024

Generative AI is making its way into newsrooms, resulting in both opportunity and worry for practitioners, judging by Generative AI In Journalism: The Evolution Of Newswork and Ethics in a Generative Information Ecosystem. 

Of the news practitioners polled, 24.5% strongly agree they are knowledgeable about GenAI, and 56.9% agree to some extent. Few disagree, and 12.8% are neutral.  

Moreover, 73.8% say their organization has used GenAI in some form.  

Content production is at the top of both the current usage and aspirational use lists. 

Current tasks include:

• Content Production: Text—69.5% 
• Information Gathering & Sensemaking—21.5% 
• Content Production Multimedia—20.4% 
• Business—16.6% 
• Content Production: Translation—8.8% 
• Working with Data—7.7%
• Content Production Transcription—7.2%
• Coding—5.0% 
• Content Production User Experience—2.8% 
• Content Production Metadata—0.6%

Aspirational usage tasks include: 

• Content Production: Text—78.6% 
• Information Gathering & Sensemaking—34.9% 
• Business—27.5% 
• Content Production: Multimedia—23.1%
• Working with Data—14.4% 
• Content Production: Transcription—10.5% 
• Content Production: Translation—8.7%
• Content Production: User Experience—6.6% 
• Coding—5.7%
• Planning—3.9% 
• Distribution Analytics—2.6% 
• Personalization—1.7%
• Content Production: Layout—1.3% 
• Fake News Detection—0.9% 

But there are ethical concerns around GenAI, although none seem overwhelming:  

• No Human Supervision—21.8%
• Inaccurate Info—16.4%
• Bias—9.5%
• Reducing Quality—7.7%
• Job Displacement—6.8%
• Lack of Transparency—6.8%
• Accountability—3.2% 
• Plagiarism—3.2%
• Originality—2.7%
• Privacy and Data Protection—1.8% 

How are newsrooms managing these issues? Here are their strategies for ethical use:

• Not Using It—20.0% 
• Verifying the Output—15.2%
• Guidelines and Legal Frameworks—14.5%
• Oversight—10.3% 
• Adhering to Journalistic Values—8.3%
• Limit Use—8.3%
• Dedicated Support Structures—4.6%
• Testing the System—3.5% 
• Learning—3.5% 
• Peer Exchange—2.1%
• Responsible Procurement—1.4%

AP surveyed 292 individuals in the news industry from December 4-22, 2023.