Editor’s Letter on Generative AI and FT

Throughout its history of more than 130 years, the Financial Times has upheld the highest standards of journalism. As editor of this newspaper, nothing matters to me more than readers’ confidence in the quality journalism we produce. Quality means above all accuracy. It also means fairness and transparency.

So today I’m sharing my current thinking on the use of generative artificial intelligence in the newsroom.

Generative AI is the most important new technology since the advent of the Internet. It is developing at a tremendous pace and its applications and implications are still emerging. Generative AI models learn from large amounts of published data, including books, publications, Wikipedia, and social media sites, to predict the most likely next word in a sentence.

This innovation is an increasingly important area of ​​coverage for us and I am determined to make the FT an invaluable source of information and analysis on AI in the years to come. But it has clear and potentially far-reaching implications for reporters and editors, for the way we go about our daily jobs, and can help us in our analysis and search for stories. This has the potential to increase productivity and free up journalists’ and editors’ time to focus on producing and reporting original content.

However, while they seem very clear and reliable, the AI ​​models in the market today are ultimately a prediction engine and they are learning from the past. They can fabricate facts – this is what is called “hallucination” – and make references and links. If manipulated enough, AI models can generate completely wrong images and articles. They also replicate existing social attitudes, including historical prejudices.

It is my firm belief that our mission to produce journalism of the highest standards is even more important in this age of rapid technological innovation. At a time when misinformation can be generated and spread quickly and trust in the media in general has plummeted, we at the FT have a greater responsibility to be transparent, report facts and seek the truth. That’s why FT journalism in the new AI age will continue to be reported and written by humans who are the best in their field and dedicated to reporting and analyzing the world accurately and fairly.

The FT is also a pioneer in the business of digital journalism and our business partners will be adopting AI to deliver services to readers and customers and maintain our record of impactful innovation. Our newsroom should also remain the hub of innovation. It is important and necessary for the FT to have a team in the newsroom that can responsibly experiment with AI tools to assist journalists with tasks such as data mining, analysis of text and images, and translation. We will not publish photorealistic images generated by AI, but we will explore the use of AI-enhanced visuals (infographics, diagrams, photos) and we will make it clear to the reader when we do. This will not affect the artist’s illustrations for FT. The team will also consider the summarization capabilities of generative AI, always with human oversight.

We will be transparent within the FT and with our readers. All use of the Newsroom will be recorded in an internal register which, to the extent possible, includes the use of third party providers who may be using the Tool. Training for our journalists on the use of Generative AI for story discovery will be provided through a series of masterclasses.

Every technology opens up exciting new frontiers that must be explored responsibly. But as recent history has shown, with excitement comes the risk of misinformation and the corruption of truth. The FT will remain committed to its fundamental mission of informing readers as generative AI and our thinking evolve on it.