Some newsrooms are turning to artificial intelligence tools to handle routine reporting tasks, freeing journalists to pursue deeper investigations. Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise and faculty at the Poynter Institute, sees real potential for AI to strengthen journalism - but he also acknowledges that many reporters approach the technology with deep skepticism.
Why journalists are wary of AI
Mahadevan points to three main sources of hesitation. First, many reporters simply do not trust big tech companies. "These are tools that have come out of Silicon Valley and are closely associated with some of the same folks who brought us the social platforms that completely changed how we reach audiences and have pulled the rug out from under journalism before," he said. Second, large language models were trained on journalistic content scraped from the internet, which some news organizations consider a form of theft. Third, the environmental cost of running AI models - and the data centers they require - is becoming a local news story in its own right.
What ethical AI use looks like in a newsroom
For Mahadevan, ethical AI use means aligning tool choices with an organization's existing editorial policies and journalistic values. He said every newsroom needs a separate AI policy built on principles of accuracy, service, and accountability. That includes being transparent with readers when AI is part of the reporting process. "If you are using it, do something that would have made a story not possible," he said. He teaches journalists to use AI sparingly and always to double-check any analysis it produces, because these tools are probability machines that can generate errors.
Where AI is already delivering results
Mahadevan pointed to the Tampa Bay Times, which uses AI to generate weather alerts and real estate briefs - two high-demand article types that previously pulled reporters away from larger stories. Automating that work allowed the newsroom to pursue an investigation into hedge funds buying up residential properties. "Investigations like that would not be possible if journalists had to do some of the rote and boring things they had to do in the past," he said. Other newsrooms are experimenting with AI for data analysis, sifting through campaign finance records or thousands of emails to surface leads that would take a human reporter far longer to find.
Why this matters for writers
Mahadevan believes traditional news outlets that avoid AI are doing a disservice to their audiences - and to their own reporters. Used well, the technology does not replace journalism; it clears away repetitive tasks so writers can focus on original reporting and storytelling. For professionals who write for a living, understanding how to use these tools ethically is becoming a core skill. Mahadevan's work in training journalists on AI for Writers reflects that shift: the goal is not to let machines write the story, but to give writers more time to do the work that only humans can do.
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