Newspapers should develop industry standards on the use of artificial intelligence, according to a new report.
The Jeffrey Review, which has examined the workings of IPSO (the Independent Press Standards Organisation) over the last 6 months warned that technological advance “is set to have far-reaching impacts on how business is done, and indeed how people live their lives.”
Sir Bill Jeffrey stated that “the most obvious” is AI, which is being used in “limited ways in the news industry, and through search algorithms in news aggregators, but clearly already has the capability to generate content.”
Looking at IPSO’s role, he added:
“[…] recent publicity about applications such as ChatGPT, which can generate original responses to questions and other text drawing on huge quantity of information, have stirred mainstream interest in AI as a generator of news content.
“This seemed a long way from the experience or expectations of most of the editors and publishers we interviews. But it already exists in less mainstream news media. We learned of online online provider which uses an AI editing facility to rewrite stories automatically, and – albeit with fact-checking by a human editor – to produce articles from scratch.
“There is also at least one fully AI-generated “news” website, with no human intervention and invented by-lines.”
As a result, Jeffrey concluded that IPSO, the Editors’ Code Committee and the industry as a whole, “would do well” to develop industry standards on the use of AI.”
The review also covers how IPSO could develop its standards and complaints work, to keep pace with changes in the news industry, not least online.
It also identifies where IPSO could improve accessibility and transparency to complainants and the public.
“Sir Bill makes several recommendations, some familiar and some novel. We expect to accept most of them relating to IPSO’s operations; in some cases these are already under way. There are some important recommendations relating to IPSO’s governance, which we are considering,” said IPSO Chair Edward Faulks.
“His report is a positive affirmation of IPSO’s independence and provides a welcome validation of the worth and relevance of IPSO’s standards work. It shows that, from consistency of complaints handling through to the lack of a divide between our independent and industry committee members, all parties in a complaint are treated fairly.”
