Artificial Intelligence in News Media: Current Perceptions and Future Outlook

TLDR

News media is being disrupted by AI, which has evolved from science fiction into a practical tool enabled by ubiquitous computing. The study aims to illustrate how AI subfields are applied in journalism and to propose a future research agenda. The authors examined AI adoption in news by analyzing seven subfields—machine learning, computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, planning/scheduling/optimization, expert systems, and robotics. They found that machine learning, computer vision, and planning/scheduling/optimization are the most developed AI subfields in journalism, while other areas remain underused, and dependence on tech‑company funding concentrates influence among a few industry players.

Abstract

In recent years, news media has been greatly disrupted by the potential of technologically driven approaches in the creation, production, and distribution of news products and services. Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged from the realm of science fiction and has become a very real tool that can aid society in addressing many issues, including the challenges faced by the news industry. The ubiquity of computing has become apparent and has demonstrated the different approaches that can be achieved using AI. We analyzed the news industry’s AI adoption based on the seven subfields of AI: (i) machine learning; (ii) computer vision (CV); (iii) speech recognition; (iv) natural language processing (NLP); (v) planning, scheduling, and optimization; (vi) expert systems; and (vii) robotics. Our findings suggest that three subfields are being developed more in the news media: machine learning, computer vision, and planning, scheduling, and optimization. Other areas have not been fully deployed in the journalistic field. Most AI news projects rely on funds from tech companies such as Google. This limits AI’s potential to a small number of players in the news industry. We made conclusions by providing examples of how these subfields are being developed in journalism and presented an agenda for future research.