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The emergence of generative intelligence is disrupting numerous sectors, and journalism is no exception. This technology, capable of producing text, images, and videos of impressive quality, raises crucial questions about the evolution of the profession. While generative AI poses an evident threat to certain traditional aspects of journalism, it also offers new opportunities to strengthen investigative journalism. Nonetheless, AI could easily be diverted by states or non-state actors to influence elections, destabilize societies, and undermine trust in democratic institutions.
Threats of AI on Traditional Journalism
One of the major concerns related to generative AI is the risk of thought uniformity. The algorithms underlying these systems undoubtedly lead to the homogenization of information, favoring certain angles or sources at the expense of others. This trend has profound cultural and geopolitical implications, limiting the diversity of viewpoints and reinforcing power disparities between nations. Indeed, the development of generative AI is currently dominated by a few major technological powers, mainly the United States and China. Europe, despite recent efforts, remains behind in this race. This imbalance raises fears of these actors monopolizing global information at the risk of nurturing cultural, ideological, or strategic biases.
The increasing automation enabled by generative AI irrevocably threatens jobs in the journalism sector. In the very short term, entire segments of the profession will be replaced by machines, from the writing of factual articles to the generation of multimedia content. This prospect raises social and ethical questions about the role of humans in the process of creating and disseminating information.
Investigative Journalism in the Era of Generative AI
However, generative AI is not just a threat. It also offers tremendous opportunities to enhance investigative journalism. With the proliferation of available data (documents, financial transactions, social media exchanges, etc.), AI tools can help journalists analyze these massive volumes of information to uncover hidden patterns, connections between conflicts of interest, suspicious financial flows, influence networks… Many leads that would be very difficult, if not impossible, to identify by human means.
But to take advantage of this bounty, investigative journalism must also face several challenges. One is to preserve its integrity and rigor in the face of the temptation of automation. AI must remain a tool for journalists, not a substitute for their expertise, critical thinking, and ethics. It is necessary to ensure that editorial choices, the prioritization of information, and the interpretation of facts remain exclusively human prerogatives. But how to resist the allure of convenience?
Another major challenge is that of skills. To master and exploit the full potential of generative AI, journalists will need to acquire new technical knowledge, from statistics to programming. Beyond initial training, a continuous effort towards education is essential to keeping the profession competitive.
Media Manipulation by Generative AI
The downside is that generative AI can also be diverted to manipulate information and deceive public opinion. This is the whole issue with deepfakes, those ultra-realistic synthetic contents (images, videos, and sounds) produced by neural networks. Today, it is very easy to generate false statements by public figures, simulate events that never occurred, or even impersonate someone in compromising videos.
In the face of deepfakes, the very credibility of the media and institutions is threatened. How can citizens still trust images and sounds broadcasted if they can be indetectably falsified? This climate of generalized mistrust is an ideal breeding ground for all conspiracy theories and mass manipulations.
Fortunately, technical countermeasures are being developed to detect and counter deepfakes. Increasingly sophisticated forensic analysis tools can authenticate dubious content by tracking inconsistencies (blurry edges, false reflections in the eyes, irregularities in voices, etc.). Large databases of deepfakes are also being compiled to train AI capable of automatically spotting them. However, in this technological race, there’s no guarantee that detection capabilities will remain superior to falsification capabilities.
The Temptation of Crowd Violation
But adapting journalism will not be enough. Given the magnitude of the stakes, an urgent mobilization of all concerned actors is required. Generative AI is on the verge of becoming the ultimate propaganda weapon, capable of manipulating the masses on an unprecedented scale. As demonstrated by Serge Tchakhotine in 1939 in his visionary book The Rape of the Masses by Political Propaganda, techniques for manipulating minds have continuously improved over time. With AI, they could reach an unparalleled level of sophistication and effectiveness, turning information into a true weapon of cognitive warfare.
In the face of this peril, it is imperative to establish a utopian international framework to regulate the development and use of generative AI in the media. Only then can we hope to preserve the integrity of information and the health of our democracies. But beyond these essential regulations, a profound reinvention of journalism must also be undertaken. It is vital to loudly reaffirm the primacy of human intelligence, professional conscience, and ethics. More than ever, we need demanding investigative and analytical journalism, one that takes time for reflection and critical distance. A journalism that, through its courage and independence of spirit, can resist all pressures and attempts at instrumentalization.
This combative journalism is what we must build together by putting AI at the service of the general interest rather than the reverse. The road will be long and fraught with obstacles, as the economic and political forces pushing for blind automation are powerful. But this fight is for a new world, for it is the very fate of freedom of thought that is at stake before our eyes. By refusing to give in to the ease of machines and constantly reinventing the noble mission of informing and enlightening consciences, it is journalism as a bulwark of democracy that we can, together, revive and thrive in the era of generative AI.
