The journalism industry, like society at large, is discovering new and expansive ways artificial intelligence can help with certain tasks, such as sorting through mountains of data. At ProPublica, we’ve experimented with AI to examine grants flagged as “woke” by a Republican senator, to transcribe reams of recordings and to look for connections in documents. We’ve also hired AI fellows to help find responsible uses of the technology in developing news applications and in the work done by our engagement team.
AI is rapidly evolving, and all the ways it might be used in our newsroom are still unclear. But one thing AI won’t change is our relationship with our readers, which has been, and will always be, based on trust. We believe in being as truthful and transparent about how we use these technologies as we are about all of our operations. At every step of the way, we intend to move forward with care and caution. Here are the principles and guardrails underlying our practices. They are:
- Accountability: Our journalists are responsible for everything we publish. If AI is used in our work, it must be reviewed by staff and meet the same editorial standards as the rest of our journalism.
- Verification: We treat AI-generated material as unverified source material. Because these tools can produce errors, fabricate information or reflect bias, we independently verify facts and claims before publication.
- Transparency: If AI plays a meaningful role in the reporting of a story, we will clearly disclose its use to our audience.
- Integrity: We do not use AI to generate or manipulate images, audio or video in ways that could mislead our audience. Moreover, AI tools do not replace the original reporting, analysis and judgment of our journalists.
- Privacy and security: We protect our sources, subjects and data by ensuring sensitive or confidential information is handled only through secure, trusted systems. We take care not to input confidential source documents into public AI tools that could compromise data privacy.
New technology is both invigorating and challenging because no one knows where it will go. But the trust we have built with our readers will always guide our work. We will continue to assess the efficacy of AI in our journalism and update our guardrails as the technology and our use of it evolve.
