The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in newsrooms creates the issue of how it will affect perceived news credibility and ethical standards. The online experiment (n=1,200) was conducted in a 2x2 format and investigated the impact of message credibility, accuracy, fairness, and sharing willingness between byline (Human vs. AI-assisted) and disclosure (None vs. Explicit). The findings indicated a low but significant penalty against AI-assisted bylines, which was alleviated by direct disclosure, suggesting editorial control (AI-assisted; editor verified), particularly in people more media literate. The qualitative results indicated that the human-in-the-loop verification, the division of tasks, and the provenance practices could tackle these issues. The paper recommends that responsible AI usage involves a set of dedicated disclosure, human validation, and transparency to ensure credibility and ethical standards.
Saeed et al. (Mon,) studied this question.