
More than half of journalists say AI has significantly impacted their work
80% of journalists use AI in their profession but almost 8 in 10 (79.3%) have no established policy for AI use in their newsrooms. 52.4% think AI has significantly impacted their work. Despite concerns about AI’s impact on creativity, originality, and the risk of increased misinformation, journalists express a cautious optimism towards this new technology, a survey by Thomson Reuters Institute shows. The survey comprises 200 journalists from more than 70 countries across the Global South and emerging economies.
57.6% of journalists are taking the initiative to educate themselves about AI indicating a greater need for training, according to the survey. Among recommendations are to invest in training, to fund pilot projects and establish policies for AI use.
Key findings:
- Over 80% use AI tools in their journalistic work, with nearly half integrating these tools into their daily workflows, and nearly a further third using AI on a weekly basis.
- Journalists use AI tools for a diverse range of tasks, including drafting and editing content, research, transcription, translation, fact-checking, and idea generation, potentially saving time, reaching new audiences, and working more efficiently. ChatGPT is the most widely used tool.
- Only 13% of participants have an official AI policy in their workplace. Nearly eight out of ten (79.1%) noted the absence of any clear company policy.
- Nearly half (47.6%) say their employers are neutral about AI integration. Around a quarter (22.6%) said their company actively encourages it, with similar numbers (24.5%) being cautiously supportive. Only a small number (5.3%) noted that their company had banned or opposed the use of AI.
- Many leading AI models are primarily trained on English-language data from Western sources. This potentially risks creating an inherent bias in these systems, alongside exacerbating existing digital divides.
- Nearly one in five respondents (18.3%) said they do not use AI. Lack of awareness and knowledge (55.3%) as well as insufficient training and support (52.6%) were the most cited barriers to usage. Lack of access (47.4%) and concerns about accuracy (45.0%) were also highlighted.
- The majority of those who use AI are self-taught (57.6%).
- More than half of our sample (52.4%) said that AI had impacted their work in the past 18 months to either a “great extent” (12.4%) or a “large extent” (40%). Another third was more ambivalent, saying that it had “somewhat” of an impact (25.3%) or that it was too early to tell (9.4%).
- There are clear worries about long-term negative concerns, including AI’s impact on creativity and original reporting (54.3%), the erosion of critical thinking skills (51.4%) and the risk of increased misinformation (49%).
- 53.4% expressed a high level of ethical worries about AI and its impact on the journalism industry, even though more than eight in ten are using AI technologies. Fewer than one in ten sais they were either “not concerned” (5.8%) or did not have a view on the matter at this time (2.4%).
The report is written by Damian Radcliffe, journalist, educator, researcher, and professor based at the University of Oregon.
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