Journalism, AI & what it means to be unbiased

I was almost done with my first semester of college when ChatGPT was released. Immediately, the world was thrown into a frenzy as we asked “How will AI impact the world?” Were we allowed to use it in classrooms? Would it replace our jobs? How would we be able to compete with the labor output of a computer that seemingly held the world’s knowledge and didn’t need to sleep?

As a journalist, I’ve thought about these questions a lot. How do I plan to use, or purposefully avoid, AI in my work? What do I provide as a journalist that can’t be replaced by AI? Is a robot better at being unbiased, and if so, should I be working?

These questions came up again this past summer after I saw a post on LinkedIn from a woman named Simpy Harwani. Harwani claims that an article she had spent much time writing for Forbes was flagged as 60% likely AI-generated. Out of curiosity, Harwani ran articles from Forbes and Reuters through AI detectors and saw similar likely AI-generated rates. 

“It’s as if these tools have set the bar so low for human writers that when they come across concise, grammatically flawless writing, they assume it must be AI-generated,” Harwani said.

I’m nowhere near a perfect writer. My grammar could certainly use some improvement, as a blue Grammarly line under this sentence indicates to me (I thank our good Lord for copy editors). An AI chatbot could pull facts for an article quicker than I could research them, and with a few details, it could spin those facts together into a concise article. While AI is not entirely unbiased, it does a pretty decent job for the most part. I don’t doubt that an AI can pull together a well-written article with important facts.

So, it would appear that my job as a journalist is at risk, right?

Not entirely.

Is unbiased journalism just a collection of well-placed facts? No, although facts and their placement are crucial to a good news story. But for journalism to be unbiased, you need to be informed by both sides of the story, not neither.

Think about it in terms of politics. If I’m writing an article about a bill that is facing opposition, I’ll have to start with the basic task of explaining what the bill is and who it impacts, both negatively and positively. Then I’ll share which party is voting to pass it and which party is looking to block it.

This is where it gets more complicated; I have to share why each party is voting the way that they are. Is it because one party is evil and doesn’t want its citizens to flourish? Usually not. Is it because one of the parties is stupid? Also no. Is it because humans are complicated beings that must always deal with nuance?

Yes.

I’ve noticed a trend where “unbiased journalism” has come to mean journalism with no opinions in it. While a list of facts can be helpful, this doesn’t cover the fact that we are beings with stories that impact how we live. Yes, part of my job as a journalist is to tell you the basic facts behind a story, sometimes even the history behind current issues. In our political examples, there are other important questions I need to ask. Why are the parties voting or not voting for the bill? Do they want to replace it with something else? Does this vote fit into or against a larger plan that could help citizens? If we focus on specific lawmakers, how have their personal or political experiences shaped this vote? These are questions with personal and sometimes opinionated answers for sure, but giving both sides a place to speak is what keeps things balanced. It’s also my job to present both the pros and cons of a solution and who it impacts the most.

AI can’t replace my job because it can’t tell human stories with the grace of a human touch. It can’t intersect the political facts with the historical context and the social/economic impact within those human stories. Can I use AI to gather information? Perhaps; it can be a good place to start. But for journalism to truly help average citizens access what they need to have productive conversations and be informed voters, people like me are going to need to keep working with humans and their messy stories. AI may know how to answer questions, but it doesn’t know which questions to ask, and that’s why it won’t replace what I’m doing.