Environmental journalists: Readers are losers in the AI revolution
The rise of artificial intelligence is making it harder for journalists to convey complicated science news about the environment, said panelists at the annual 2025 Society of Environmental Journalism conference in Tempe.
And readers of that news stand to lose the most from AI, said Panayiotis Moutis, Assistant Professor of the City College of New York.
As AI becomes more human-like, it's becoming harder to differentiate the wording or images of a robot from those of a real person. AI programs lack the creative thinking of a human brain, leaving readers feeling they've read it all before. They click away.
ASU Professor Punya Mishra said the winners of the AI revolution are software developers and powerful companies.
Jay Barchas-Lichtenstein, senior research manager for the global Center for News, Technology and Innovation, agreed.
Not only are the companies becoming wealthier as these systems are being invented, but they are also using the public input as a sort of 'trial test-run' to constantly improve on these systems to be better, Barchas-Lichtenstein said.
Barchas-Lichtenstein conducted an international public survey in 2024 asking journalists if they use AI in their current work, and if so, for what.
At least one in three of the public responders said they use AI technology and accept journalists doing the same.
In 2024, two-thirds said they use AI to translate content from another language, and 60% said they use AI to summarize or analyze documents or data.
But only 39% said they use AI to write story drafts.
Over 70% of the public said they were okay with journalists using AI. The biggest issue was with image creation and editing. As 43% of journalists said they've used AI to edit an image, less than 50% of the public said they were comfortable with that.
Mishra said that AI should never be used as a substitute for their own research or in place of their original writing.
'Use AI when accuracy doesn't matter,' said Mishra.
Serenity Reynolds is a junior studying journalism at Arizona State University and is part of a student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
Coverage of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference is supported by Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism, the University of Arizona and the Arizona Media Association.
These stories are published open-source for other news outlets and organizations to share and republish, with credit and links to azcentral.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: SEJ 2025: How to trust environmental news in the world of AI
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