As Artificial Intelligence inexorably becomes more and more common in the media and the news business, the CBC has decided to release its manual on how it uses the technology for its newscasts. The document is meant for employees to show what is acceptable and what's not. 

As far as I know, this may be the first time those not working for the Corp. have seen this. It's pretty dry overall (did they use. A.I. to write it?) One of the highlights to me is the rule regarding use of A.I., described as:

"Content produced primarily or entirely by AI with minimal human intervention. This should not be used in our journalism without an overriding editorial reason to do so and must have prior approval from a manager or director.

"We will not use or present AI-generated content to audiences without full disclosure. No surprises: audiences will be made aware of any AI-generated content before they listen, view or read it."

And then there's this:

"AI-generated content should not be used in our journalism without an overriding editorial reason to do so and must have prior approval from a manager or director. This includes, and is not limited to, image and video generators, generative AI features in our suite of tools and generative AI content supplied by partners."

The manual is a bit dry but at least it shows that the spectre of A.I. will only be used in limited ways and will not be writing news given on or published by Canada's national broadcaster.

I wonder if other stations play by similar rules or if they even have a list of guidelines.

CBC News AI Principles and Practices