Can Journalism Survive in the Age of AI?
The head of Reuters says news organizations must adapt quickly or risk losing their place in a world where AI chatbots are replacing traditional news sources.
The editor-in-chief of Reuters, Alessandra Galloni, gave a major speech in Sydney, Australia, about one of the biggest challenges facing journalism today: artificial intelligence, or AI. She warned that AI is changing how people find and read the news — and not always for the better. News organizations need to act now to protect their work and stay relevant. Her speech covered history, technology, danger, and the future of a free press.
About 10 percent of news readers worldwide now use AI chatbots to get their news — nearly 50 percent more than just a year ago. Among people under 35, that number is 16 percent. These figures do not even count AI summaries built into search engines or phone apps. So the real numbers are likely even higher.
One big fear in the news industry is that AI companies are using journalists' hard work without paying for it. When AI systems learn from news articles, the journalists who wrote them often get nothing in return. The money that should go to newsrooms is instead going to large tech companies. Galloni called this a 'plunder' that could hurt original reporting for years to come.
To explain why trusted journalism matters, Galloni looked back 175 years to the founding of Reuters. Paul Julius Reuter started the news agency in London in 1851 with a drive to be first with the news. In 1865, a Reuters reporter chased a ship by tugboat to get news of President Lincoln's assassination on board before it sailed to Europe. Reuters had also built a private telegraph line to the tip of Ireland to wire news to London before anyone else could.
Galloni said AI can actually be a powerful tool when used responsibly. Reuters reporters used AI to build databases tracking thousands of social media posts for a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation. In another story, AI turned 20,000 pages of photographed documents into searchable text, uncovering a mass grave in Syria. But Galloni was clear: AI still makes mistakes, and humans must always check the work before it is published.
The further news travels from a human reporter, the less people believe it.
Comprehension quiz preview
1. What percentage of global news consumers use AI chatbots to get their news, according to the speech?
2. In what year did Paul Julius Reuter set up his news agency in London?
3. How many Reuters journalists were killed in conflict zones in the five years before the speech?