When pressed for sources on factual data, ChatGPT defaults to citing "general knowledge," providing misleading information with unearned confidence. This lack of verifiable sourcing makes it a liability for detail-oriented professions like journalism, requiring more time for correction than it saves in research.
The risk of unverified information from generative AI is compelling news organizations to establish formal ethics policies. These new rules often forbid publishing AI-created content unless the story is about AI itself, mandate disclosure of its use, and reinforce rigorous human oversight and fact-checking.
Despite being a language model, ChatGPT's most valuable application in a data journalism experiment was not reporting or summarizing but its ability to generate and debug Python code for a map. This technical capability proved more efficient and reliable than its core content-related functions.