The Associated Press, the US-based not-for-profit news agency, has published standards for the use of generative AI in its newsrooms, laying potential groundwork for news organisations around the world to follow.

The company, which announced a two-year partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to help train algorithmic models last month, said that the “mindful use of artificial intelligence” can help to serve its guiding values of “accuracy, fairness and speed”.

The list of standards published by the news agency are largely restrictive and based on common sense. The main point in the list is that while "AP staff may experiment with ChatGPT with caution, they do not use it to create publishable content."

The guidelines note an exception for AI-generated illustrations or works of art if it is the subject of a news story – such as the case of the viral puffy jacket Pope photo which was generated by AI. Such images can be used as long as they are clearly labelled as a product of generative AI in the caption.

The guidelines go on to state that "any output from a generative AI tool should be treated as unvetted source material" and that “we do not allow the use of generative AI to add or subtract any elements” in accordance with existing standards not to alter any elements of photos, video or audio.

The other points in the AI guidance list are more focused on staff behaviour and how they interact with AI tools like Chat GPT, such as urging staff not to input any confidential information, encouraging journalists to exercise "due caution and diligence to ensure material coming into AP from other sources is also free of AI-generated content”, and instructing journalists to identify the original source of content that may be generated by AI to spread misinformation.

If journalists have any doubt at all about the authenticity of the material, they should not use it, the guidelines surmise at the end.

The standards were published by Amanda Barrett, vice president for standards and inclusion at the AP. In a ‘behind the news’ article explaining the standards, she wrote: “The central role of the AP journalist – gathering, evaluating and ordering facts into news stories, video, photography and audio for our members and customers – will not change.

“We do not see AI as a replacement of journalists in any way.”

Share Story: