AI & Journalism Briefing

The PETRAS’ briefing ‘Intelligible Cloud and Edge AI (ICE-AI) – AI and Journalism’ gives an overview of artificial intelligence in journalism and focuses on how AI technologies can be applied in the news production process. By listing both the benefits and potential risks of such AI applications, the report offers a good understanding of the impact AI-driven systems can have on journalism. The briefing also summarises the challenges the adoption of AI by news organisations can have, which include laws and regulations, cost, as well as professional norms and values.

There are multiple applications of AI in journalism, primarily using machine learning techniques that learn from past data. Examples include smart systems that monitor and alert journalists to information, assist data and document analysis, automate story production and create audience profiles to drive news recommendations to them.

Key messages:

• While news organisations are using AI applications for newsgathering, production and distribution, relevant skills and technology are unequally distributed across the news industry.
• Future opportunities to augment journalism can emerge from machine learning and the automation of routine tasks. This could enable the improvement of the depth, diversity and appeal of news.
• Concerns have been raised relating to legal, ethical and professional implications of the use of AI in the newsroom due to issues of bias, ‘black box’ systems and value alignment.
• There are limited assessments of the impacts and implications of AI on journalism.
• More work needs to be done to avoid potential risks and ambiguities.

Download the full AI & Journalism Briefing Notes document here.