No turning back: AI's growing role in the news

When generative AI burst into public consciousness, many in the news industry experienced a familiar sense of dread. Social media had decimated newsroom business models over the last decade, and here is yet another set of technologies out to kill them. But that sentiment is misguided. Indeed, AI’s role in news presents many risks to publishers, but—like the advent of the world wide web decades prior—it also represents an opportunity to fulfill the public service mission of journalism. “No Turning Back: AI’s Growing Role in News” is the second in a series of reports on AI and News from Aspen Digital. It summarizes key insights from our March 2025 gathering in London of top news executives from the UK and Europe. What struck us most is how far things have come since we had a similar meeting in New York last spring. The following are our takeaways, authored by Dr. Felix Simon: <ul> <li> <strong>News rooms are using AI, but carefully</strong> – Newsrooms are embracing AI but for incremental improvements rather than revolutionary transformation. Most have focused on automating routine tasks like transcription, translation, and headline creation. Many organizations ’have established internal training programs, created specialized AI roles, and identified internal “AI influencers” to encourage adoption and mitigate resistance.</li> <li> <strong>A shift to “distinctive journalism”</strong> – To mitigate the threats from AI presents for news discovery, publishers are focusing on the kind of distinctive journalism that AI cannot easily replicate, including investigative and enterprise reporting, and nuanced analysis.</li> <li> <strong>Is imitation the highest form of flattery?</strong> – A central industry dispute involves the use of publishers’ content to train AI systems. Many technology companies have scraped news content without compensation, often justifying this through broad interpretations of fair use doctrine. In response, some publishers advocate for stricter enforcement of existing copyright laws and oppose copyright exemptions that favor AI developers. Proposed solutions include collective licensing arrangements or managed marketplaces to connect AI developers and rights holders.</li> <li> <strong>Do audiences care? </strong>– User perspective is a major gap in the industry conversation. Despite frequent references to trust and transparency, limited attention has been paid to how audiences, especially non-expert or marginalized users, experience AI-driven news.</li> <li> <strong>Small but mighty</strong> – Smaller media outlets, Global South news organisations, and freelancers are often overlooked in discussions around AI and news.</li> </ul> The report contains more detail and testimonials from key industry players.