The How and Why of Generative AI: The Effect of AI Disclosure Policies on the Perceived Trustworthiness and Financial Value of Automated News

As news organizations increasingly use generative AI, it is important for newsrooms to communicate with their readers about the ethical principles that inform their journalistic use of generative AI. When readers see an AI disclosure policy that explains how and why an organization uses generative AI, does it change trust toward news content written with generative AI? An online between-subjects experiment was conducted with participants from the United States (N = 675) to test how exposure to an AI disclosure (created following the best practices recommended by Poynter) affects the trustworthiness, perceived financial value, and willingness to subscribe to AI-written news. Results found that exposure to an AI ethics policy increased subsequent perceptions of AI transparency, AI supervision, AI ethicality, and AI helpfulness. Furthermore, participants perceived AI assisted news as more trustworthy and more worthy of being subscribed to after exposure to an AI disclosure policy relative to a no-disclosure control. Study results show the critical role played by AI ethics policies for improving receptivity toward AI assisted news.