"A new study conducted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the BBC has found that leading AI chatbots routinely distort and misrepresent news stories. The consequence could be large-scale erosion in public trust towards news organizations and in the stability of democracy itself, the organizations warn. Spanning 18 countries and 14 languages, the study involved professional journalists evaluating thousands of responses from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity about recent news stories based on criteria like accuracy, sourcing, and the differentiation of fact from opinion."
"The researchers found that close to half (45%) of all of the responses generated by the four AI systems "had at least one significant issue," according to the BBC, while many (20%) "contained major accuracy issues," such as hallucination -- i.e., fabricating information and presenting it as fact -- or providing outdated information. Google's Gemini had the worst performance of all, with 76% of its responses containing significant issues, especially regarding sourcing."
"The study arrives at a time when generative AI tools are encroaching upon traditional search engines as many people's primary gateway to the internet -- including, in some cases, the way they search for and engage with the news. According to the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2025, 7% of people surveyed globally said they now use AI tools to stay updated on the news; that number swelled to 15% for respondents under the age of 25."
A study by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the BBC evaluated thousands of responses from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity across 18 countries and 14 languages. Professional journalists assessed outputs for accuracy, sourcing and separation of fact from opinion. Close to half (45%) of responses had at least one significant issue and 20% contained major accuracy problems, including hallucinations and outdated information. Google's Gemini performed worst, with 76% of responses showing significant issues, particularly with sourcing. Rising use of AI for news discovery raises risks to public trust and democratic stability.
Read at ZDNET
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]