Using AI to make the news understandable
News media struggle to make young people read the news. A new survey indicates that making the news understandable is a major challenge. Younger users often use AI to navigate the news: 48% of 18–24s use AI to make a story easier to understand compared to 27% of 55+ (a 21 percentage point gap), a survey by Reuters Institute shows. The survey comprises six countries (Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the US).
But using AI to get news is – at least still – quite rare, two surveys show. The public’s use of generative AI has increased substantially in the last year. The proportion who say they have ever used a standalone generative AI system is up from 40% to 61%, and weekly usage nearly doubled from 18% to 34%, according to the RI survey.
Getting news via a generative AI system has doubled but remains a minority activity. Weekly use rose from 3% to 6%, driven mainly by users in Japan and Argentina, the RI survey shows.
A US survey by Pew Research Center says that about one-in-ten adults get news often (2%) or sometimes (7%) from AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini. An additional 16% do so rarely. Most Americans (75%) say they never get news this way.
Fewer than 1% of Americans say they prefer to get news from chatbots rather than from other sources of news.
The RI survey says that getting news via a generative AI system is strongest in Argentina and the USA and among 18–24s (8%) compared to 55+ (5%), and higher for degree-holders.
“Among AI-for-news users, ‘latest news’ (54%) and help with summarising, evaluating, or rewriting are most common. Younger users lean more towards using AI to help them navigate the news: 48% of 18–24s used AI to make a story easier to understand compared to 27% of 55+ (a 21 percentage point gap)”, RI says.
According to Pew Research, adult Americans under 50 are slightly more likely than older Americans to get news at least sometimes from AI chatbots (12% vs. 6%). However, there are much larger age differences when it comes to overall chatbot use.
Americans who get news from AI chatbots have mixed experiences with the news they get there – particularly when it comes to perceptions of its quality.
“A third of those who use chatbots for news say they generally find it difficult to determine what is true and what is not. About a quarter (24%) say they find it easy to do so. But the largest share (42%) isn’t sure.”
“Meanwhile, about half of adults who get news from AI chatbots say they at least sometimes come across news there that they think is inaccurate. That includes 16% who say they see this extremely often or often. Another 22% say they rarely or never see inaccurate news on chatbots, while 29% aren’t sure.”
“While younger adults are more likely than older adults to use chatbots in general, they are also more likely to say they see inaccurate news there:”
Among Americans who get news from AI chatbots, 59% of adults ages 18 to 29 and 51% of those 30 to 49 say they at least sometimes see news on chatbots they think is inaccurate. By contrast, 43% of those 50 to 64 and 36% of those 65 and older say the same.
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