How has artificial intelligence affected journalism?

Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how we learn about the world. While it can help journalists in some ways, it also makes it harder to avoid misinformation.

How can AI be beneficial?

AI tools can help determine what is most important in a document, but journalists still need to verify it.

Some news websites use AI to recommend articles to readers based on their interests.

AI can help improve the online experience and suggest ways to make stories more popular.

What are the challenges of AI?

In 2023, a well-known American magazine, Sports Illustrated, was accused of publishing articles generated by artificial intelligence. The magazine removed those stories, conducted an investigation and fired some of its executives.

This situation has raised concerns among journalists about the potential loss of jobs due to automation. Automation is anything that replaces human workers by machines.

AI has the ability to create highly realistic fake articles, photos and videos. This makes it much harder for journalists to figure out what is real.

For example, it can create a video of a celebrity or politician saying something they never actually said.

This means that journalists need to learn how to check pictures and videos for signs they have been changed. This skill is important in preventing the spread of fake news

All in all, AI is a powerful tool. However, journalists need to use it in a way that helps readers get honest and reliable information.

Use the puzzle below to test your knowledge of the vocabulary words in the story.

Suggested answers

• Before you read: Answers may vary.

• Stop and think: Humans have emotion and a sense of good judgment, while AI is more fact-based.

• Consider: With AI, it is harder to figure out what things are real and what things are fake. For example, deepfakes create seemingly real photos and videos. AI also threatens the jobs of journalists.