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When was the last time AI made you laugh? Scenes from the 2025 Summit on AI, Ethics and Journalism [1]
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Date: 2025-04-11 15:17:45+00:00
Artificial intelligence — and how we use it — is changing by the day.
In the year since Poynter first convened news and product leaders to discuss the ethical considerations of introducing AI into newsrooms, we’ve witnessed the arrival of new AI platforms, the explosion of chatbots as search engines and a major shift in how AI is showing up in news.
Newsrooms on a local and national level are experimenting with AI, using tools inside the newsroom to better report and display stories, and tools externally to better connect with audiences. But audiences, new research shows, are still skeptical about generative AI in news.
This year’s Summit on AI, Ethics and Journalism, led by Poynter and The Associated Press, unfolded over two days in New York City’s financial district at the AP’s headquarters.
Here’s a brief summit recap through images:
Audience research
How do news audiences truly feel about artificial intelligence? Up to this point, it’s been hard to gauge. Benjamin Toff, associate professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and director of the Minnesota Journalism Center, unveiled new research that showed news audiences are still skeptical about AI and how newsrooms use it. Read the survey results here.
Audiences want transparency, Toff said. They are afraid of being deceived, fearing the loss of human connection and deeply concerned about how technology is exacerbating isolation.
“People want disclosure,” Toff said. “Their reflexive default is, ‘Tell me when (AI) is being used.’”
The Onion CEO Ben Collins had a simple question for the room: “When was the last time” artificial intelligence made you laugh?
His case was that AI can’t write a good joke because jokes come from things “that haven’t happened yet.”
“All of the problems that are easy to solve with technology have been solved and things we’re left with are … longstanding social problems,” Broussard said, adding that we can’t code our way our of centuries-long societal issues.
She continued: “As media, we are responsible for holding power to account. We are responsible for holding algorithms and their creators for the social problems these algorithms are exacerbating.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/2025-poynter-ap-ai-summit-journalism-ethics-news-audiences/
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