Journalists may see AI as a threat to the industry, but they're using it anyway

"The three most frequent uses are for language processing (transcription, translation, grammar checking). These tasks may top the list because the accuracy problems associated with AI output are probably of less concern in these contexts than they would be for tasks such as fact-checking. Nevertheless, our findings clearly show that journalists are also using AI for substantive journalistic tasks. More than a fifth use AI at least monthly for "story research" and 16% for "idea generation" and "generating parts of text articles.""

"Male journalists reported somewhat higher levels of AI use than their female colleagues and younger journalists use AI more frequently than those who are older. Our findings also show that AI use increases with management responsibility. Part of the explanation may be that the uses being made of AI by those with more management responsibility are subject to fewer limitations than the uses being made by those with less."

A representative sample of UK journalists reported on actual professional AI use. Most journalists (56%) use AI weekly, including 27% daily, while 16% have never used AI for journalistic tasks. The dominant applications involve language processing such as transcription, translation and grammar checking. Journalists also use AI for substantive tasks: over 20% use it monthly for story research, and 16% use it for idea generation and generating parts of text articles. AI is rarely used for still image or video generation. Usage correlates with gender, age, managerial role and reporting beat, with business reporters using AI most.

Read at Nieman Lab