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In many Asian countries, letting an AI-generated error slip through could mean not only reputational harm but legal and political persecution
Across Asia, public interest media are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize under-resourced newsrooms. However, these outlets face a high-stakes reality: publishing AI-generated errors, factual inaccuracies, or “AI slop” risks undermining the public trust and credibility central to their legitimacy. At the same time, these media are also aware that they are operating in authoritarian contexts where AI-induced mistakes can lead to legal and political persecution.
Hence, independent outlets in the Asia-Pacific – the media that produce journalism essential to democratic accountability – exercise “principled caution” when deploying AI. They exercise this caution not just because of a desire to maintain their reputation for accuracy. They also do so because there is a real risk of forced state closure, the freezing of assets, or the imprisonment of staff.
This is the core finding of Asia Centre’s latest report, “Principled caution: How AI is used in public-interest media in Asia,” published in partnership with DW Akademie and supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
