‘AI slop’, deepfakes, and misinformation continue to scare journalists as publishers fear the era of AI summaries will send traffic to news and media websites plummeting.

It is no secret that the media has mixed feelings about AI’s role in information sharing – the New York Times filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI over allegations of the firm using the news site’s work without credit or permission.

The rise of AI search summarises, which have been integrated on Google Search, have left publishers feeling disheartened at the future prospects of their industry, and that’s before getting into how AI makes it harder for people to tell the difference between fact and fiction.

This is all based on findings from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which surveyed 260 media leaders from 51 countries.

The report revealed growing fears from publishers on the drop in website traffic resulting from Google’s AI Search overviews. Media leaders predicted that referrals from search engines to their websites would fall 43% in the next three years.

Beyond these fears of plummeting traffic – which would result in less revenue and potentially shuttered media platforms – the report states shuddering stats: some estimates showing that the majority of web content is produced by AI, about 10% of the fastest-growing YouTube channels show only AI videos, and TikTok already hosting over a billion AI videos.

While the report points out that not all of this AI material is necessarily harmful or malicious, the rise of deepfakes and AI manipulated images and videos can spell disaster when it comes to the spread of misinformation in elections and geopolitics.

Elections in Latin America, Europe, and Asia faced interference with deepfakes of politicians – while these are often debunked on a large scale, their influence is difficult to track and can create a general sense of distrust among the public.

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Further, social media sites, where these AI videos often proliferate, are continually rolling back content moderation even as the UK urges big tech to promote online safety.

But fears over misinformation and the difficulty to ascertain reality may drive a renewed need and push for human-led journalism. Around half (57%) of publishers surveyed said that these trends in AI have the potential to strengthen the need for news media.

However, over a quarter (27%) think that these same trends weaken their position as an increase in disinformation, misinformation, and the ability to manipulate narratives not just with jargon and politicisation but with AI, can lead to polarisation and a lack of trust in news institutions.