The article draws a parallel between the seismic impact of Gutenberg´s printing press on the European book industry of the 1400s and today´s emergence of Artificial Intelligence as a game-changing agent, particularly in how news is consumed. The analogy frames Artificial Intelligence as society´s new ´miraculous´ agent, with the potential to revolutionise our engagement with information in ways comparable to early print technology´s effects on literacy and access.
Until recently, most people encountered news through social media, especially platforms like Facebook, which still dominates news referral traffic despite declining popularity. With the rise of conventional Artificial Intelligence, however, there is growing speculation about whether it will supplant traditional news delivery. Devices such as Amazon´s Alexa already summarise major news stories on request, but increasingly, tools like ChatGPT are becoming the go-to sources for information, with a cited study revealing that 63% of respondents preferred using ChatGPT over Google, not only for news but for a range of queries.
The reliability of Artificial Intelligence-generated news remains a pressing concern. Research by the BBC has cast doubt on the trustworthiness of Artificial Intelligence assistants, with findings indicating that 91% of their responses to news-related queries contained issues such as factual inaccuracies, missing context, or incorrect sourcing. Additional problems highlighted in the research include outdated information, mislabelled opinion pieces, and errors in key event details and statistics. Despite these limitations, relatively few people rely primarily on Artificial Intelligence chatbots for news—a Reuters Institute study found just 5% adoption across six countries—but this may change as the technology evolves.
The article emphasises the urgent need for effective tools and safeguards to monitor and control Artificial Intelligence in news contexts. Experts propose augmenting chatbots with systems for fact-checking and citation verification to prevent the spread of misinformation. Ultimately, the article argues that audiences should prioritise established and reputable news sources to navigate the so-called information crisis, rather than depending exclusively on Artificial Intelligence-generated content for an accurate and balanced understanding of events.
