The AI Disclosure Dilemma: Can Transparency Undermine trust?
As generative AI becomes more embedded in journalism, newsrooms are facing an unexpected challenge. Being transparent about AI use may actually reduce audience trust.
That was one of the insights shared by Kimon Kieslich during a recent presentation at an International Communication Association preconference in Cape Town, and later expanded on in an interview with CINIA’s Janet heard.
The presentation was based on the new study: Feeling Iffy About Generative AI: Investigating Audiences’ Trustworthiness Perceptions of Task-Specific AI disclosures, co-authored by Kieslich with Nicolas Mattis and Claes de Vreese, via an affiliation with the AI, Media & Democracy Lab at the University of Amsterdam.
Drawing on the team’s findings, Kieslich explored how audiences respond to different types of AI disclosures in news.
While transparency remains a core journalistic value, the study found that simply informing readers that AI was used does not necessarily increase credibility. Instead, every task-specific AI disclosure tested led to reduced perceptions of trustworthiness.
However, the findings also revealed crucial differences. Audiences tended to more comfortable with AI supporting early-stage tasks such as brainstorming than with it being used for core editorial functions like writing or fact-checking.
The research suggests many readers interpret AI labels as meaning content was produced entirely by machines, even when journalists were responsible for editorial decisions.
This disconnect points to a broader communication challenge for news organisations. Rather than relying on blanket disclosure policies, the researchers believe that newsrooms should adopt more nuanced approaches that explain exactly how AI was used while reinforcing the role of human oversight.
Kieslich told Heard, “The baseline AI disclosure may not be the right direction. It needs to be nuanced to get the message across and to build trust. Importantly, it does not mean that AI disclosure is bad. It means that newsrooms must be careful about how they communicate it. There needs to be a very specific way of doing that.”
As journalism continues to evolve alongside AI, maintaining public trust will require meaningful transparency that communicates how journalists are using these tools without compromising editorial values.
Further Reading
- Janet Heard unpacked Kieslich et al’s study in an article titled, Exploring the promises and pitfalls of disclosures when audiences feel ‘iffy’ about GenAI. READ HERE.
- AI in the newsroom may decrease trust and ad revenue of outlets, according to Nanz, Bunder and Matthes in article titled AI in the Newsroom: Does the Public Trust Automated Journalism and Will They Pay for It? READ HERE.
- In a study for the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, CINIA and Karen Allen International provided one of the first comprehensive snapshots of how South African journalists across print, broadcast and digital media are using AI in their daily work. READ HERE
