Local media faces AI ethical challenges

Zimbabwean media is at crossroads because of the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), which experts say presents ethical challenges despite opportunities that come with it.

Africa adviser for International Media Support, Rashweat Mukundu, said the challenges of AI in journalism were broad based.

“These include artificially generated news stories where anyone can generate news and can manipulate images.

“There are ethical questions on how journalists can deal with how factual is the video, image generated through AI,” he said.

“Journalists will face ethical challenges on how to apply AI in newsrooms. We need to be wary of implementing AI so that journalism remains relevant and professional.”

Mukundu, however, emphasised that AI offers opportunities enabling research and cost-cutting measures.

A lecturer in the Department of Media, Communication, Film and Theatre at Midlands State University, Calvin Masuku, emphasised ethical challenges brought by AI.

“Al may misinterpret sarcasm, cultural context, complex socio-political nuances. These may lead to inaccuracies in reporting and interpretation.

“It may lead to dissemination of false or misleading information and lack of ethical responsibilities,” he said.

“AI has disadvantages like job displacement due to rapid advancement of the media industry, negative impact on journalism ethics especially authorship, copyright and credibility.”

He, however, said AI allowed journalists to engage more deeply with complex stories, leverage on their human insight, empathy and investigative skills.

“AI helps journalists to advance data analysis and reporting and enable personalisation of news through curated news feeds and recommend articles that align with individual user interests,” Masuku said.

He said that AI led to automated reporting and content generation.

“AI assists in initiating coherent and accurate reports leading to rich information and helps in initiating deeper exploration of complex topics.

“Al assist with storage of large datasets, identifying patterns useful for investigative journalism.”

NewsDay