SmartNews Research Finds Worry about News Manipulation Among Top Reasons for Lack of Generative AI Adoption

Rohini Venkatesan, US Consumer Insights Manager

Since November 2022, ChatGPT and Generative AI have taken the tech world by storm – AI-related companies have been founded and shuttered, and Gen AI has made a foray into every industry. But despite the ubiquity of the term, actual usage and market penetration of AI tools is growing slowly. 

In research conducted for SmartNews, we see that newsreaders are getting steadily more familiar with Gen AI over the last three quarters, but there are still major concerns about news / media manipulation.

• 73% of respondents surveyed say they are somewhat/very familiar with Gen AI.
• About a quarter use Gen AI regularly – with 15% using Gen AI almost every day, and 7% using it several times a day.
• Trust follows a similar pattern, increasing to 47% – 14% trust Gen AI greatly when it comes to news / information related media, and 33% trust it somewhat. 

There’s certainly a wide range of concerns with AI – our respondents mention lack of trust, privacy / surveillance concerns, as pressing issues. Most relevant to news, 45% of those who don’t use AI mention “manipulation of social media / news” as a primary blocker. 

Those who choose not to use AI are doing so deliberately, as fewer than 20% of non-users cite a lack of utility or unfamiliarity with the tools as their primary reason for avoiding it.

At SmartNews and other media / tech companies, there’s a clear path to growing this trust: by showing users that we want to utilize AI tools to enhance their news experience, rather than to limit it or manipulate it.