That was the question asked of a panel of senior journalists at Cavendish Consulting’s AI event on Wednesday 23rd July. It was a packed house and a very insightful session on how AI is reshaping every aspect of journalism.
The speakers were:
Richard Burgess- BBC Director of News Content.
Rachel Burford- Chief Political Editor of the Evening Standard and Rob Waugh – Author and National Technology Freelancer. The event was moderated by Steph Macleod, Head of technology at Cavendish.
A summary, as heard by Shout! Communications co-MD, Catherine Bayfield.
The consensus was AI is not going to go away. Its use is progressing within the media at pace ,and playing an increasingly significant role in modern journalism.
AI is leveraged to analyse data, personalise content, and even help with fact-checking. But the panel agreed there are important ethical considerations around AI use in news, specifically around bias, accuracy and transparency.
Ultimately, they voiced fears that unscrupulous people are peddling stories and when you really look at them, they’re obviously not true or the sources aren’t real with quotes from fake experts!
The biggest issue that there aren’t enough people to fact check and there’s a need above all to protect the public’s trust in news.
There are concerns too within the industry. The NUJ has an ongoing campaign ‘Journalism by Humans’ and have written to software developers like Microsoft Google and META warning them not to use their members work “for the training, development, or operation of AI models.”
There was frustration from the journalists that tech companies and platforms like X don’t take down AI generated fake news and concern that Gen Z are increasingly looking to social media to get their news.
This is backed up by Ofcom’s July 2025 report, which says 80% of 16–24-year-olds went online to get their news, with 75% looking specifically to social media. X is being used by 12- to 15-year-olds for weightier news topics, such as politics and current affairs.
What about radio and television journalism?
My interest was obviously skewed towards AI in broadcast news and Richard confirmed that BBC News is experimenting with AI – and are probably more cautious than most news outlets in its use but equally acutely aware that it’s going to transform the way people consume news. He confirmed BBC is using AI for sport text commentary and the weather.
Richard oversees more than 800 journalists in the UK and around the world who provide content for BBC News across digital, television and radio. He is also responsible for BBC Verify, a unit working on forensic open-source journalism and fact checking. This is becoming increasingly more challenging as there are so many stories and pieces of information flying around on the internet that it can be hard to know what’s real and what’s fake.
Richard highlighted that back in January Apple dropped its AI news tool that wrongly claimed Rafael Nadal was gay. The tech giant had been under growing pressure with inaccuracies including fake BBC News stories
Currently BBC news channels use AI for research and ‘digging’ and then Richard stresses their journalists have to be suspicious and verify. He says recently there’s been a wave of disinformation online since Israel began strikes on Iran with videos- created using artificial intelligence and shared by the Israeli Ministry – boasting of Iran’s military capabilities, alongside fake clips showing the aftermath of strikes on Israeli targets. The three most viewed fake videos BBC Verify found have collectively amassed over 100 million views across multiple platforms.
Does the public care whether they're being given the truth?
The panel were asked if they thought there’d be a tipping point that makes the public care about whether they’re getting real information? The response probably not – they won’t change their habits and view AI as their assistant or partner advising them on what they’re doing throughout their life which is a big challenge for newsrooms. Traditional print media sign up to a code of conduct, either through self-regulation or by being part of a larger regulatory body but once it is on social media the comments aren’t ever questioned – users become emboldened, and it suddenly becomes ‘fact.
A surprising new trend
But there is one more surprising trend – that while traditional journalism models are under pressure, investigative and real-life journalism is experiencing a resurgence. There’s a surge of interest in true crimes and real-life experiences nothing can beat a human personally gathering news and speaking to real people to find out the truth. Richard Burgess echoed this and said that he hopes fundamental human skills will be more valuable with humans talking to people and highlighted the distinctiveness and quality of BBC news’s journalism setting itself apart from other broadcasters in the way it offers transparency and trust too. He cited trust by the public in specific journalists and singled out Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s International Editor – when he says something – it is valued and trusted. There’s also a trend for news influencers.
How to spot an AI fake
So how do you spot a fake AI story. The panel feel they’re becoming increasingly harder to spot. There are some little signs – something dodgy about how a photograph is framed, is the story simply outrageous but ultimately the advice is there is disinformation, have scepticism and ask yourself where does the information come from do you trust the source as so many platforms are disinterested in fact checking
Where AI is universally welcomed though is helping journalists process data. Freelancer and author Rob Waugh says he finds ChatGPT invaluable and uses it to circumnavigate having to pay to read a report behind a paywall. In any case AI algorithms can analyse large amounts of data to identify trends.
IT is also helpful in uncovering leads for investigative journalists, identifying potential sources and contacts for stories, especially in complex investigations.
AI's definition of journalism
I asked AI to summarise role of AI in journalism and its view below – couldn’t have put it better myself:
AI augments journalism by enhancing speed, scale, and efficiency—especially for data-heavy or repetitive tasks. However, human editorial oversight remains crucial to uphold journalistic integrity, ethics, and trust.
