Newsrooms Seek Ideal Boundaries for AI Use in Journalism

Media practitioner Anggi Oktarinda has stated that the utilisation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the media industry continues to grow, although the sector is still seeking an ideal formulation for dividing roles between technology and human journalists. “The media is still looking for the ideal formulation to share roles with AI; which tasks can be done by AI and which must remain the domain of humans,” Anggi said during a presentation on research findings regarding AI use in the media in Jakarta on Thursday. She noted that the use of AI in newsrooms now covers various stages of journalistic production, from issue research and the production process to content distribution and audience interaction. The postgraduate student from Padjadjaran University explained that the application of AI in media can be distinguished into two categories: the front end, which is directly visible to the public such as chatbots and interactive applications, and the back end, which works behind the scenes to support the editorial workflow. She explained that the use of AI in the media industry is not a new phenomenon. Globally, the Associated Press has reportedly been utilising AI technology since 2013 to automatically process corporate financial reports into articles. This technology allowed a productivity increase of up to 15 times compared to manual processes. Subsequently, several media outlets began to demonstrate similar uses of the technology. While offering efficiency and increased productivity, AI also raises a number of concerns among journalists. “Journalism is laden with values, norms, and ethics. When it meets an automated system that lacks moral consideration, many questions arise regarding the limits of its use,” she said. Anggi also highlighted the issuance of the Guidelines for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Journalistic Work, launched by the Press Council in January 2025, as an important step for the media industry. In research conducted on two national economic media outlets, Anggi found that AI has so far been used more for technical tasks such as summarizing articles, checking for writing errors, creating interview transcripts, translating manuscripts, generating search engine optimization (SEO), and producing voice narration. “The boundary is not when AI is able to do our work, but when we stop understanding our own work and hand too much of it over to AI,” said Anggi.