ETHICAL CONCERNS OF USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN JOURNALISM: QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS (CASE OF GEORGIA)

The goal of the paper is to show the results of the study on how Georgian media professionals assess the ethical challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence in journalism and what threats they see in this regard. The semi-structured interviews-method was used for this purpose. The study was conducted from February 1 till 20 Aprill 2025. At the whole 10 media professionals (journalists and representatives from academia) participated in this qualitative study. Although the active use of artificial intelligence in Georgian journalism has not yet begun, most media professionals have a skeptical attitude. They discuss ethical challenges as the main threat. According to this study, the main concerns are copyright, plagiarism-related challenges, lack of regulations and fears related to personal data. Most of the questioned respondents believe that artificial intelligence tools can only be used by journalists as auxiliary tools for creating content. As they noted, despite the ethical challenges, they will have to accept and incorporate this innovation, because the journalism of the future will inevitably be without artificial intelligence.