Only a minority accept Artificial Intelligence in news production.
Published: Monday, Oct 30th 2023, 12:21
Updated At: Tuesday, Oct 31st 2023, 00:53
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The Swiss population is critical of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in news production, according to a representative survey conducted by the Public and Society Research Center (FÖG) of the University of Zurich.
According to the latest annual report on the quality of Swiss media presented by the FÖG on Monday, only 29 percent of the Swiss population would read articles that are entirely generated by AI. This is based on the responses of 1254 people from German- and West Switzerland who participated in the FÖG survey in July this year.
For the public, the role of journalists in reporting remains central, according to Daniel Vogler, head of research at FÖG, who presented the study in Zurich. 84 percent of people are willing to accept content written by media professionals without the use of AI.
Acceptance depends on the topic.
The survey also shows that acceptance of AI in the media depends on the topic: when it comes to news about weather, sports, stock prices or famous people, respondents can more easily imagine reading AI-generated content. However, when it comes to news about politics, economics, science or culture, acceptance is significantly lower.
Another finding is that only about ten percent of those surveyed would be willing to pay for media contributions that were completely written by AI. A clear majority of those surveyed also want media companies to be compensated by AI providers when text robots such as ChatGPT draw on journalistic content.
The Swiss Federal Office of Communications (FÖG) recommends that Swiss media declare when they use AI. "Only in this way can journalism differentiate itself from the growing number of unreliable offers," says Director Mark Eisenegger according to the statement. The survey showed that over 80 percent of those surveyed wanted AI-generated media content to be declared accordingly.
More and more people are becoming deprived of news.
The annual yearbook published by the FÖG also states that the number of so-called news-deprived people in Switzerland has continued to grow, now reaching 43 percent of the population. These are people who rarely read, listen to, or watch news anymore.
The Swiss Media Observatory (FÖG) has found that the quality of reporting in Swiss media has reached a new high since 2015. This has been attributed to the coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine conflict, according to the center.
The Swiss media have been found to publish more organizing content on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram than on their news platforms, according to the latest Yearbook of Media Research. Linards Udris from the FÖG said this was a positive development for public consumer news.
In order to prevent the number of news-deprived people from increasing, a type of journalism should be practiced that also includes positive news. It is not only necessary to describe problems, but also to show possible solutions, recommends the research center.
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