A lot has changed since we created AI ethics guidelines for newsrooms. Here’s what you need to know now; Poynter, June 26, 2025

 Jennifer Orsi, Poynter ; A lot has changed since we created AI ethics guidelines for newsrooms. Here’s what you need to know now

"More than a year ago, the Poynter Institute published a “starter kit” for newsrooms to create their own ethics policies for using artificial intelligence in their journalism. AI use in newsrooms has grown swiftly since then — and gotten more complex — and the team behind the starter kit has just published a new update,adding more information for visual journalism and for those developing products in newsrooms.

“One of the biggest things we heard over the last year was, the editorial guidelines are great, but what do you visual teams do? What is allowed there?” said Poynter faculty member and MediaWise director Alex Mahadevan, who helps lead Poynter’s AI work. “And people building these products — chatbots and such — what are their ethical obligations?”...

Much of the new material was devised and workshopped during Poynter’s second Summit on AI, Ethics and Journalism, which took place in New York City in April, this time in partnership with The Associated Press. 

Poynter published its first guidelines in March 2024, and refined them further following its first AI Summit in St. Petersburg in June 2024. Much has changed in AI use in journalism since then, Poynter leaders said.

“Before we published these guidelines, most of the newsrooms that I talk to were avoiding AI, thinking that no good could come from it,” said Kelly McBride, Poynter senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership. “Many newsrooms are now doing tiny experiments, and many more are contemplating adding AI to their workflows.”"

Ask the ethicist: How to create guardrails for the AI age; WBUR, April 25, 2025

 

Willis Ryder Arnold

Deborah Becker, WBUR; 

Ask the ethicist: How to create guardrails for the AI age

"Will AI devastate humanity or uplift it? Philosopher Christopher DiCarlo's new book examines how we can navigate when AI surpasses human capacity.

Guest

Christopher DiCarlo, philosopher, educator and ethicist who teaches in Philosophy Department at the University of Toronto. Author of "Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It.""

Vatican conference ponders who really holds the power of AI; Religion News Service, June 27, 2024

Claire Giangravé, Religion News Service; Vatican conference ponders who really holds the power of AI

"The vice director general of Italy’s Agency for National Cybersecurity, Nunzia Ciardi, also warned at the conference of the influence held by leading AI developers.

“Artificial intelligence is made up of massive economic investments that only large superpowers can afford and through which they ensure a very important geopolitical dominance and access to the large amount of data that AI must process to produce outputs,” Ciardi said.

Participants agreed that international organizations must enforce stronger regulations for the use and advancement of AI technologies.

“You could say that we are colonized by AI, which is managed by select companies that brutally rack through our data,” she added.

“We need guardrails, because what is coming is a radical transformation that will change real and digital relations and require not only reflection but also regulation,” Benanti said.

The “Rome Call for AI Ethics,” a document signed by IBM, Microsoft, Cisco and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization representatives, was promoted by the Vatican’s Academy for Life and lays out guidelines for promoting ethics, transparency and inclusivity in AI.

Other religious communities have also joined the “Rome Call,” including the Anglican Church and Jewish and Muslim representatives. On July 9, representatives from Eastern religions will gather for a Vatican-sponsored event to sign the “Rome Call” in Hiroshima, Japan. The location was decided to emphasize the dangerous consequences of technology when unchecked."