AI Bots Becoming Go-To for Daily News, New Poll Reveals

A growing number of people are turning to generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT to keep up with daily news, according to a new report published Tuesday.

The annual survey from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism—affiliated with Oxford University—reveals for the first time that a notable segment of the public relies on chatbots for headlines and updates, as noted by director Mitali Mukherjee.

While just 7% of respondents across 48 countries reported using AI to access news, usage climbs to 12% among those under 35 and 15% for under-25s.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT leads as the most popular chatbot, followed by Google’s Gemini and Meta’s Llama.

Users value the personalised and relevant news these tools provide.

Beyond direct news consumption, many employ AI for summarising (27%), translating (24%), recommending articles (21%), and nearly one in five engage chatbots to ask questions about current events—highlighting an evolving relationship between audiences and AI-powered news tools.

Distrust Persists as Many Believe AI Threatens News Transparency and Reliability

Scepticism persists, with many survey respondents expressing concern that AI could undermine the transparency, accuracy, and trustworthiness of the news.

Unlike traditional programming, today’s advanced AI systems—known as large language models (LLMs)—are trained on vast datasets drawn from the internet, including news articles and video reports.

These models generate text and images based on user queries but are prone to “hallucinations,” a phenomenon where AI fabricates plausible yet false information by extrapolating patterns from its training data.

In a bid to capitalise on shrinking revenues, some news organisations have partnered with AI developers to share content, while others have taken legal action over alleged unauthorised use—most notably, the New York Times suing OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT.

Beyond AI’s impact, the Reuters Institute report highlights a broader media shift: traditional outlets like TV, radio, newspapers, and news websites are losing ground to social networks and video platforms.

Nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds now rely on social media—especially TikTok—as their primary news source, a trend especially pronounced in emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Thailand.

This shift has strained traditional media’s finances and empowered politicians like US President Donald Trump and Argentina’s Javier Milei, who bypass conventional media gatekeepers to communicate directly with voters.