Unpacking the Institute for Public Policy Research’s (IPPR)’s new report ‘AI’s got news for you: can AI improve our information environment?’
AI is rapidly reshaping how we search for, access and consume news and information. A timely new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), ‘AI’s got news for you’ asks a provocative question: ‘can AI improve our information environment?’
The report covers a wide range of topics, finding that AI is creating a new generation of winners and losers, exploring the consequences for the financial sustainability of quality journalism, and making recommendations including ‘standardised nutrition labels’ for AI news.
In this blog, we explore IPPR’s findings in relation to local news.
Could AI help local journalism?
For decades, the news sector has struggled with declining trust, readership and outlet closures. Starting with the positives, IPPR sets out a clear case for the ways in which new AI technology could help to tackle long-standing challenges in the sector.
AI tools could:
- Make news more engaging through summaries, personalisation and converting content to audio and video formats.
- Help audiences navigate information by answering follow-up questions, providing deeper insights and predicting their interests.
- Expand access for underserved audiences, including non-English speakers, people with disabilities and communities with little local coverage.
If time saved through these initiatives is invested wisely, underfunded areas like local news, could be revitalised and public interest news could see a much needed resurgence. Over the longer term, the report suggests, AI could lower barriers to entry into journalism, supporting new voices and more democratic forms of news production.
AI is the new-s gatekeeper
Of course, it’s not all sunshine and roses. The report finds that AI companies are rapidly becoming the new news gatekeepers of the internet, shaping what information people can access and what gets left out. Large language models and search tools increasingly summarise the news for users, deciding which outlets’ content is included.
IPPR warns that this “editorialisation” risks creating a new generation of winners and losers. When certain publishers are prioritised and disproportionately used to feed AI through shadowy algorithms, the range of perspectives consumers are exposed to can narrow without users realising it. For local outlets, already operating on tight margins, being excluded from these systems could mean near invisibility.
The financial implications could be devastating. Publishers are predicting a 43 per cent reduction in search traffic over the next three years, as AI overviews in search reduce the likelihood that users will click through to news sites. This seriously threatens already dwindling advertising and subscription revenues as AI tools nearly always reproduce news content without payment.
Local news outlets are already under extreme pressure, meaning that they are particularly vulnerable to the financial impacts threatened by the rise of AI tools. The report notes that while organisations with deep community roots may prove more resilient, none are immune.
What should happen next?
IPPR is clear that to protect democracy, government intervention cannot wait. Big tech is moving quickly and the increasingly fragile news market needs action fast.
The think tank recommends:
- Making AI companies pay for the news they use, by requiring fair payment and collective licensing deals that ensure a wide range of publishers are included.
- Introducing clear, standardised “nutrition labels” for AI news so the public can see where AI answers come from and how they’re shaped.
- Using public funding to protect independent news in the age of AI, by backing a BBC-led public interest AI news service.
In terms of local news specifically, the charity calls for an independent news licensing taskforce, chaired by an independent expert and bringing together representatives from broadcasting, print and local news to build consensus across the sector on the collective licensing of their data to AI companies.
AI could support newsrooms to help underserved communities access trustworthy information. But without intervention, it could just as easily become another powerful big tech actor disrupting local journalism.
Ultimately, it is the actions taken now by government, regulators, big tech and news outlets themselves that will determine whether or not AI becomes a ‘force for good’.
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