TRENDS Research & Advisory has released a new insight—Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Media Between Empowerment and Bias—authored by Aurika Shavtikova, an Associate Professor at RUDN University in Moscow, Russia.

Supervised by TRENDS’ Virtual Office in Moscow, the English-language insight sheds light on the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the modern media sector. It highlights AI’s immense opportunities in accelerating content generation, checking facts, and generating audience-specific content. It also addresses AI’s challenges and risks, such as bias, reduced quality, and privacy threats.

The insight draws on real-world examples from Arab, European, and Russian media outlets and the author’s personal experience as a correspondent for an international news channel. While AI has become indispensable in today’s newsrooms, the study affirms that it cannot fully replace human journalists.

The insight emphasizes that neutrality in the age of AI remains highly contentious due to the absence of a unified international framework regulating the use of AI systems. It calls for urgent international cooperation to ensure the ethical deployment of AI in media, promote transparency, and safeguard users’ digital rights.

It also discusses the rise of AI-powered news anchors and their expanding role in covering routine and urgent events while noting their limitations in emotional expression and human engagement.

The insight concludes that while AI is a powerful tool to support journalists, it is not a substitute for them. The human touch in editing, judgment, and audience engagement remains at the heart of journalism in the digital age.