Switzerland’s Press Council advises caution with AI

Switzerland’s Press Council is also calling for content created with the help of artificial intelligence to be labelled as such. Editorial offices would have to explicitly state where and how they use such programmes. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / CHRISTIAN BEUTLER

Switzerland’s Press Council is advising the media to be vigilant and cautious when dealing with artificial intelligence (AI). According to a set of guidelines released by the council, the ethical rules are the same as in the Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists.

This primarily concerns the new AI tools that generate artificial content, as the Swiss Press Council announced in a press release on Tuesday. This could be texts, images, videos, voice contributions or photos.

Journalists and editorial offices are responsible for all the content they publish. This responsibility cannot be transferred to an AI tool under any circumstances, the self-regulatory body for media ethics issues in Switzerland stressed in the press release.

Journalists therefore need to check content before publication according to the usual journalistic criteria of truthfulness, accuracy and reliability, even if the content is generated with the help of AI.

Labelling obligation

Switzerland’s Press Council is also calling for content created with the help of artificial intelligence to be labelled as such. Editorial offices would have to explicitly state where and how they use such programmes.

The rules regarding sources also remain valid, emphasised the council. Journalists are required to know and evaluate the sources which the content generated by artificial intelligence is based on. The origin of the information must be named in the same way as for a “traditional” journalistic topic.

The Swiss Press Council makes a special recommendation regarding products such as sounds, images or videos: these should never be misleading or confusing due to their closeness to reality.

Furthermore, according to the Council, no confidential, personal or “otherwise sensitive data” may be entered into AI programmes without ensuring control over the future use of this data.

Copyright laws are also required to be observed. Content taken by AI from existing sources must be cited according to the usual criteria, the council wrote in the press release. With AI developing rapidly, the committee wants to review the guidelines on an ongoing basis and adapt them as necessary.

While the obligations do not currently require any new guidelines, the Press Council’s Foundation Board is discussing an adjustment to the rights of journalists. The council says that the reasoning behind this is due to AI disrupting the industry and therefore also journalistic working conditions. Almost the entire Swiss media industry is a member of the board of trustees.

Adapted from German by DeepL/mg/amva

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