Over the past three years AI has triggered a societal shift and we are sure that many of our readers are using it in their own lives or work.
News has been at the forefront of these discussions. It is impacting our business model as AI summaries start answering news queries on search engines and chatbots. It is also raising questions about truth, veracity and plausible deniability, and debate about how – or whether – news organisations should use AI in their journalism.
Here at the Guardian, there has been extensive internal discussion about how we can benefit from this fast-developing technology while protecting our authenticity and our values.
We take pride in our bylined journalism, grounded in the human experience. However ‘intelligent’ AI may appear, it doesn’t experience the world as we do. That lived experience is our unique contribution, and an authentic response is what our readers, supporters and staff expect and deserve.
However, as AI becomes integrated into everyday computer software, phones and other devices, often without users realising, it is important that we engage with the technology in a deliberate, constructive way. This extends beyond the newsroom to explore potential opportunities to make our systems and ways of working more efficient.
So what are we doing?
Educating staff - While our staff can choose whether or not to use GenAI in their work providing it is in line with our published principles and editorial code, we want everyone at the Guardian to understand the technology, and know how to use it safely and responsibly. We’ve rolled out a mandatory training course for all our staff that goes beyond dos and don’ts - explaining how AI works and the science behind it - so our staff can make informed decisions. We’ll keep updating our training as the technology evolves.
Creating in-house tools that incorporate Guardian values - We are introducing GenAI tools built in line with our editorial standards and style and with guardrails. These include a suggestion tool to help write alt text (the description of an image), and internal research tools to search our archive, interrogate parliamentary documents and transcribe audio to text.
Being transparent - We are committed to signalling any significant use of GenAI in our journalism, whether for illustrative images or data analysis, with a footnote. An example can be found here.
To support this approach, we have updated the GenAI section in the Guardian’s editorial code and our published AI principles.
