How CBC News will use AI responsibly to benefit our journalism — and keep your trust

“ prefer tidings, non disturbance.”

thither’s plenty of research to suggest Canadians are feeling overwhelmed by this flood of questionable content. 

A new survey from the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) found 88 per cent of respondents expressed concern about AI-generated deception in the news. Nearly half the people surveyed said they encounter misleading or false information daily or several times daily. 

We want to share with you our new internal guidance for staff in the interest of full transparency. And perhaps these updated guidelines will be of interest to others grappling with how to use this technology in the newsroom, workplace, schools or elsewhere.  

The fundamentals of our guidelines remain the same as before: human oversight is mandatory; AI is the tool, never the creator; final editorial judgment, fact-checking and accountability always rest with our journalists; our journalistic standards must be met at all times; we will be open and transparent about any material use of AI in our journalism, and you, the public we serve, will never have to question whether something we’ve produced is real or AI-generated. 

Using generative AI to create original, public-facing content (text, video, audio or images) can be fraught and in our view poses the greatest risk to public trust if not managed carefully. We will be extremely conservative when using it, only with strict human oversight and transparency. As stated in the original guidelines, “No surprises: audiences will be made aware of any AI-generated content before they listen, view or read it."

We do, however, see opportunities with AI in an assistive capacity. For example, the tool can be used to quickly interrogate vast amounts of data. Recently, we analyzed a number of town council meetings to identify contentious stories that had not yet been told by community media (subject, of course, to our own verification). 

Here, for the record, are the guidelines we shared with staff.

As AI is a rapidly developing field, these guidelines will be reviewed, updated and communicated on an ongoing basis.

Our use of AI is governed by foundational principles and strategic goals that align with our Journalistic Standards and Practices. 

It is important to distinguish between the two primary ways AI can be involved in content creation. 

With the core principles and goals listed above in mind, AI tools are approved for specific functions that assist workflows and enhance efficiency. The usual editorial and vetting processes must apply to all scenarios. The goal is to preserve the unique value of human journalistic judgment and creativity.

Approved uses fall into several categories:

1. Research and story development

2.  Assistance and review

A note on content transformation: In specific approved instances where AI is used to transform content, such as text-to-speech or closed captioning, a human is not required to be in the loop prior to publication. 

Our core principle is that journalists, not AI, are responsible for our journalism. This means:

Mandatory practices:

Prohibited uses:

Transparency is key to maintaining audience trust. However, not every use of AI requires a disclosure.

Disclosure is mandatory when generative AI's contribution affects the content in a materially significant way or when the content would not have been possible without the use of AI.

"We will not use or present AI-generated content to audiences without full disclosure. No surprises: audiences will be made aware of any AI-generated content before they listen, view or read it."

Discussion is encouraged when deciding whether to include a disclosure. If you require clarity on whether a disclosure is required, speak with your respective leadership teams.

The key question to ask is: Is there any risk that the audience might be misled if we do not disclose the use of AI? If the answer is yes, a disclosure is required.

Include these details when a disclosure is necessary:

Example disclosure: 

In this story, we used (AI/tool/description of tool) to help us (what AI/the tool did or helped you do). When using (AI/tool), we (fact-checked, had a human check, made sure it met our journalistic standards). Using this allowed us to (do more of X, go more in depth, provide content on more platforms, etc.).

You do not need to disclose the use of AI for routine, assistive tasks that do not substantively shape the final editorial product. Examples include but are not limited to:

Editor in chief

---

---