Millions of people across the world are incorporating AI into their daily lives. Large AI companies like ChatGPT by OpenAI Claude by Anthropic, and Gemini by Google, are starting to become substitutes for search engines. This has effects on everyday life that span beyond quick searches. Some journalists have started using AI to mass produce stories, fact check, and quickly summarize information.
Ethics
With the rise of AI’s presence in daily life, ethical concerns are intensifying. For example, AI collects information from a multitude of sources, but does not credit the original producers of the work. .This means that the credibility of the author can be jeopardized, as the AI’s information could have come from a forum filled with completely wrong information. Not only can information be fabricated, but faces can as well. Deepfakes are digital media that are made to misrepresent somebody doing something that they did not actually do by mimicking a person’s voice or appearance. (“How Deepfake”). Deepfakes generally affect people in places of authority and fame in positions that negatively impact their reputation. When major news outlets and bloggers fall for deepfakes, the created stories propel the situation, or scandal, onto the global stage. This can take away jobs from victims of deepfakes as well as the journalists themselves.
Automated Information
AI requires reliable input data to produce accurate results. Journalists using AI will not get the necessary reliable results by sourcing answers through AI. Unchecked Artificial intelligence usage will lead journalists into spreading false information online. Journalists should use AI as a tool rather than having it do the work for them like at Kwara State (Perceived effect), giving them more control and capabilities to spot mistakes easier. Using AI in this way will lead to less false information being spread and more factual information seen and heard.
The Need for Accuracy
A growing number of people are using social media outlets like TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook to receive their news information. Mainstream organizations like CNN, NBC, NY Times, Washington Post, etc. have had to compete in order to provide the quickest and best news information. As a result, AI has been embedded in the journalistic field in order to accomplish this goal, leaving stories open to misinformation and inaccuracies.
AI is often used to save journalists’ time by finding background information, highlighting important details surrounding a story, and formatting an article. It provides data from available sources or claims all over the internet, whether that data is factual or not. It can pull from independent journals, social media, blogs, and more. A joint study between the European Broadcasting System (EBS) and BBC found that AI assistants misrepresent news content or contain at least one meaningful error: lack of accuracy or context, incorrect sourcing, opinion vs. fact, and problems with editing 45% of the time. Around 20% of errors stem from a lack of accuracy (Findings, Research. Audience Use and Perceptions of AI Assistants for News. 2025.). When an individual reads an article, they are typically unaware about the topic or information being presented; making readers unaware of the misinformation. This places a significant burden on crucial fields like public health, economics, and politics, that require transparency or could create public hazards and spread misinformation. The public loses trust and journalists’ credibility can become irreparable. The absence of accountability of AI is ever-growing, especially as new models continue to arise. If artificial intelligence isn’t held accountable, legislation to improve AI won’t happen and corporations will continue cutting corners, allowing the continued exploitation of information.
Moving Forward
AI is not going to vanish anytime soon, and embracing it could be beneficial to journalists across the globe. Journalists have begun to use AI to translate their articles, while also using AI to fact check in moderation, as information from it is not always perfect. Journalists should be transparent about the use of AI in their articles. As generative models receive new data to work with, it increases the diversity and quality of information that AI has at its disposal. Training the neural networks that power AI will create desired outputs, making AI more consistent and reliable; increasing its use within journalism and media.
Works Citied
Automated Journalism and the Future of News in an Artificial Intelligence Era | Interdisciplinary Journal of Humanities, Media, and Political Science, journals.scipubhouse.com/IJHMPS/article/view/298. Accessed 8 July 2026.
Perceived Effect of Artificial Intelligence on Ethical Journalism among Journalists in Kwara State. – International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/articles/perceived-effect-of-artificial-intelligence-on-ethical-journalism-among-journalists-in-kwara-state/. Accessed 8 July 2026.
Audience Use and Perceptions of AI Assistants for News Research Findings, www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/documents/audience-use-and-perceptions-of-ai-assistants-for-news.pdf. Accessed 8 July 2026.
How Deepfake Cyberattacks Are Targeting Your Employees Right Now – Ninjio, ninjio.com/blog/blog-deepfake-cyberattacks-employee-protection-human-risk-management/. Accessed 8 July 2026.
By Almir Memic, Maddox Golday, and Rocco Lucas | July 8, 2026
