Understanding AI Disclosure Needs for News Production and Journalism

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way content is produced and integrated into journalistic workflows. The EU AI act's Article 50 sets up transparency requirements aimed at encouraging the adoption and disclosure of AI in an ethical and responsible manner. In this study, we organized focus group interviews with Dutch citizens (N=21) to understand their expectations and needs regarding AI disclosures in the context of news production and journalism. These conversations are essential to understand if legal and regulatory policies are grounded in real-world experiences of citizens, and adequately address their concerns and enhance their digital interactions. We found that citizens predominantly favor disclosures of AI usage in journalistic content, in the form of (1) source references, (2) visual indicators (logos/watermarks) and (3) have varying preferences regarding information presentation and interaction modalities. Our findings highlight the need for interdisciplinary approaches to align standardization efforts with AI disclosures for news media.