Lisbon, May 13, 2025 (Lusa) - According to a study published in the academic journal Communications in Human and Social Sciences, Spanish and Portuguese university students rated news generated by artificial intelligence (AI) higher than news written by journalists.
The study, entitled "Human-made news vs AI-generated news: a comparison of Portuguese and Spanish journalism students" evaluations, concluded that news generated by ChatGPT received, on average, higher quality ratings in all categories analysed: celebrity, crime, accident and culture.
"The results indicate that students generally rated ChatGPT-3-generated news as being of higher quality than news written by journalists," the study adds that students in Spain gave higher ratings to AI-generated news.
"Spanish university students gave a higher rating to ChatGPT-3 news (M = 4.92) compared to the average rating given by Portuguese students (M = 4.59)."
ChatGPT news received the highest score in readability, presentation of facts, headline creation, citation of sources, use of punctuation and understandable language.
Students in Spain also gave a lower average rating (M = 4.33) for the perceived quality of news written by journalists.
In none of the quality dimensions assessed did university students rate the news created by journalists as superior, highlighting the implications for the role of humans in the context of AI use, a trend observed consistently among students in Spain and Portugal.
The study also noted that, given young people's lack of interest in news, even among those studying journalism, they "often have difficulty distinguishing real news from fake news or advertisements."
In addition, the rise of these AI models also raises concerns about the potential risks, implications and relationship with the evolution between journalists and the creation of AI-driven content.
"As the field of AI continues to advance, more research and discussion should explore the implications for journalism," as well as how AI can shape the evolving landscape of news consumption.
This study was based on two classroom inquiries involving 99 Portuguese and 345 Spanish university students aged between 18 and 65.
The academic journal Comunicações em Ciências Humanas e Sociais (Communications in Human and Social Sciences) is dedicated to studying human, social and behavioural sciences and results from a scholarship.
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