My recent report about the use of AI in newsrooms shows New Zealand news organisations use AI as a part of news production.

For example, NZME’s BusinessDesk allows AI to generate full articles from NZX stock market releases, and Stuff allows AI to write the first draft of an article that comes from a single source, such as fire services or police.

Both news organisations say AI content creation happens with a human oversight.

Student journalists take AI stance

Our student journalists have taken a much harder stance in regard to AI, showing some tough love for AI news content creation. They appear somewhat skeptical about AI’s ability to create trustworthy news content. A similar trend was recently observed in a Poynter article.

This year, our third-year journalism students at the Auckland University of Technology created the first AI policy for their student newspaper Te Waha Nui (TWN). This policy declares that news “is best created by humans.”

While the policy does not ban budding journalists from using AI for transcription, translation, or research, it says “everything you read on TWN is written and edited by humans,” and “all images, videos, and audio clips are real and are not created or enhanced with AI tools.”

Furthermore, all stories must state whether AI was used in any way in news production. This is strict when compared to the current practice in newsrooms. While BusinessDesk labels its AI content, many newsroom editors I interviewed believe the “ship has sailed” in terms of labelling.

Transparency trumps all

TWN’s AI lead, Kyla Blennerhassett, said Te Waha Nui journalists are concerned about transparency. As Te Waha Nui is a student-led news organisation, and students collectively agreed on how to AI is used in their reporting.

“Everyone was quite apprehensive and wanted to focus more on learning skills of writing their own journalism and researching and interviewing by themselves,” Blennerhassett said.

Our data gathered for the annual Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand report confirms young people aged 18 to 24 are more comfortable with AI use in news creation (18%) than those aged 55 to 64 (7%).

A recent report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found young people held “more positive attitudes toward AI-assisted journalism and are more likely to say they use AI to help navigate and simplify complex news stories.”

This does not mean they are less cautious about the use of AI as a journalistic tool.

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