Human-made news vs AI-generated news: a comparison of Portuguese and Spanish journalism students’ evaluations

Abstract

This study examines how university students in Portugal and Spain perceive the quality of journalistic news produced by generative artificial intelligence (AI). As AI—particularly generative models like ChatGPT-3—becomes increasingly integrated into news distribution and newsroom operations, it offers the promise of greater efficiency and the reduction of non-value-added tasks. However, its rise also raises concerns about potential risks, ethical implications, and the evolving relationship between human journalists and AI-driven content creation. The study focuses on the perceptions of journalism students, addressing key research questions related to their ability to discern AI-generated news, comparing the quality between AI-generated news and news written by journalists, and the influence of news topics in assessing quality. We applied two surveys to 444 participants, evaluating dimensions of news quality, such as readability, informativeness and style. The findings indicate that students generally rated news generated by ChatGPT-3 as being of higher quality than news written by journalists. Students in Spain gave higher ratings to AI-generated news. The findings suggest a potential shift in perceptions of news quality, promoting discussions about the evolving role of AI in journalism education and its broader implications for the industry.