{"id":6884,"date":"2026-02-17T20:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=6884"},"modified":"2026-02-17T20:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:02:12","slug":"does-ai-have-a-place-in-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/features\/2026\/02\/17\/does-ai-have-a-place-in-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Does AI have a place in journalism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at The Gaudie<\/em>, we have just published our \u2018Artificial Intelligence Policy\u2019. Amid the rise of AI and the increased offloading of cognitive processes to machines, we thought it was necessary to draw a harsh, clear line to present our resistance to it. It reads:“The Gaudie <\/em>holds a zero-tolerance policy for the usage of Artificial Intelligence in its publication. This includes writing, editing, or researching articles.” This hard-line approach to AI usage has set us apart from other sectors. For many other fields, the prospect of AI development demonstrates a future of prosperity with productivity growth and job creation. Yet, journalism has been resistant to the idea of AI overreach.<\/p>\n

However, at the Warwick Economics Summit 2026, Jon Slade stood on stage and declared why journalists should not be fearful at the prospect of AI, but hopeful for the mutual advantage it provides to itself and to publishers. The Financial Times<\/em> CEO delivered his keynote speech on the evening of Friday the 6th of February in front of a packed auditorium in The Oculus building at University of Warwick. The speech was part of the 25th anniversary of the Warwick Economics Summit, where thinkers from a wide range of backgrounds and professions give speeches, seminars, and answer questions about markets, finance, and politics.<\/p>\n

The topic of AI was very prevalent throughout the entirety of the weekend. Speakers from global banks, the UN, and major publications all discussed the future of AI impact on their industries. Nathan Sheets from Citigroup talked about the positive impact it has had on Western economies, specifically how it contributes to stabilising the current unpredictability seen in markets.<\/p>\n

Jon Slade’s speech was quite similar. He advocated for the continued implementation of AI in the journalistic profession. His advocacy was based upon a flywheel he created, suggesting that AI and strong journalism can be co-dependent. This is because journalism can promote better AI searches when they surf news pages for information, which then can create a greater data set, a stronger democracy and a more informed citizen. This constant cycle, according to Slade, should be a wake up call to publishers that they shouldn’t be scared of AI. He goes on to say that he wants The Financial Times<\/em> to be used to train AI, to allow for chatbots to produce more reliable information.<\/p>\n

However, there was a panel with a number of journalists, from Jon Craig (Sky News<\/em>) to Martin Sandbu (Financial Times<\/em>), where a large part of the discussion was around the changing landscape of the journalist profession. Without mentioning it explicitly, the discussion seemed to revolve around the probability of AI suffocating traditional journalism. There was a general concern from all the panelists, but also a great sense of determination that the field will only be adapting and not in fact dying. Their sentiment was that journalism was not the same 20 years ago as it is now, with the rise of social media and online journalism, and that a similar transition would be seen within the next 20 years. It is unclear if this is blind optimistic hope that they will still have a job in 20 years, or a true analysis into the effect of AI.<\/p>\n

What can be said is that journalism is facing an existential crisis. With job losses that are unprecedented, unpredictability of engagement, and crippling rises in cost, the future of journalism is unclear. And amid this crisis, the fundamentals of what journalism provides and aims to be are central to that conversation.<\/p>\n

For those who see the mutual benefit between AI and strong journalism, they would see the efficiency and effectiveness of AI being a large contributor to helping journalists create better stories, at a faster pace, and based upon a greater field of data.<\/p>\n

For those that adamantly oppose AI\u2019s overreach into journalism, it not only devalues the work of a journalist, but also delegitimises the field. With greater news coverage coming from AI models, the supposed neutrality of them can influence the citizens. However, AI can be more unreliable than biased journalism, due to it being under the appearance of neutrality, when in reality it can be as easily manipulated as a human. Additionally, someone who is anti-AI can see the journalism field fading. If data, analysis and coverage can all be provided by something that is non-human, and if given the freedom to exploit previous journalism, the profession would then become obsolete.<\/p>\n

Overall, only time can tell. The pursuit of efficiency and productivity has allowed for AI to get its foot in the door, the question is do we let it in?<\/p>\n

This article was written as part of an agreement with WES 2026. Our reporters was invited to the summit under an agreement that The Gaudie would publish an article about the event.<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here at The Gaudie, we have just published our \u2018Artificial Intelligence Policy\u2019. Amid the rise of AI and the increased offloading of cognitive processes to machines, we thought it was necessary to draw a harsh, clear line to present our resistance to it. It reads:“The Gaudie holds a zero-tolerance policy for the usage of Artificial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":6885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":16,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[580,1090,1696,1427,1218,1694,1695],"wf_post_folders":[322],"class_list":{"0":"post-6884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-economics","10":"tag-jon-slade","11":"tag-journalism","12":"tag-student-journalism","13":"tag-warwick","14":"tag-warwick-economics-summit"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Innes Paton","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/innespaton\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/11-300x200.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Features<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Features<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["AI<\/a>","economics<\/a>","Jon Slade<\/a>","journalism<\/a>","student journalism<\/a>","warwick<\/a>","warwick economics summit<\/a>"],"unlinked":["AI<\/span>","economics<\/span>","Jon Slade<\/span>","journalism<\/span>","student journalism<\/span>","warwick<\/span>","warwick economics summit<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 months ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 17 February 2026","modified":"Updated on 17 February 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 17 February 2026 20:02","modified":"Updated on 17 February 2026 20:02"},"featured_img_caption":"Jon Slade, chief executive officer at The Financial Times | Photo: Warwick Economics Summit 2026","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6886,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6884\/revisions\/6886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6884"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=6884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}