There has been an overall transformation in Ethiopian newsrooms for both the cities and rural areas of Ethiopia. Now, journalists are using ChatGPT to take notes rather than just using traditional notebooks. Editors are using AI transcription technology to help turn audio from interviews in Amharic into English. Fact-checkers are using various online services to help determine if videos being shared across many different social media sites are manipulated as quickly as word of mouth spreads. AI has begun to infiltrate the news world, but the main question remaining is whether news media in Ethiopia will be able to provide ethical guidance and a framework to support the responsible use of AI. Currently the answer is no.
Technology Moving Faster than Policy
Ethiopia has also been affected by the global artificial intelligence movement changing how news is made. About half of the newsrooms in the world use technologies such as generative AI. And across the African continent, 60% of the reporters have used AI in some way, including text analytics and chatbots, as well as converting spoken words to written text.
Ethiopians are included in this change, although their usage so far has been limited and lacks support. Of the African news outlets surveyed, 74% have never had any AI training and 85% have never even had any structured policies on AI use. Ethiopia is representative of both statistics. There is no national-level policy regarding how to use AI in journalism, no standard for how to disclose AI-created content, and no journalism programs that have devoted attention to these tools in any meaningful way.
What that means is there is a fragmented market for AI-enabled journalism, there are a few journalists who use AI for their benefit, a number of journalists who use AI recklessly, and there are a great many journalists who refuse to use AI because they don’t have access, have not had any training, or lack any guidance.
How AI Could Transform News Production
It is inaccurate to view AI solely negatively impacting journalists in Ethiopia. At the same time, it is important to also recognize opportunities for positive changes in Ethiopia. There are more than 80 languages in Ethiopia and many people are unable to access journalistic content that is produced by previous generations or even produced in the same local area because journalism has typically been published in a very small number of languages over the history of journalism.
The amount of data generated by the Ethiopian government, the national statistical office and NGO’s for development has increased rapidly in a short time. This has created a challenge for journalists converting the large amount of data into content that has relevancy and meaning for readers. AI applications and software to manage and convert data into usable formats can create new opportunities for investigative journalism and provide accountability to those who are in positions of power.
Another challenge that faces Ethiopian journalists is their workload; journalists often work within constraints of limited resources and the lack of institutional support. Journalists that can utilize AI to process and convert many documents, transcripts or social media posts have more time to conduct research and develop quality stories to tell than those who are using traditional methods. Therefore, the amount of productivity achieved by using AI to increase productivity, impacts whether or not an individual story will be told in a resource challenged environment.
The Risks Cannot Be Ignored
Ethiopia exemplifies the darker side of AI in relation to the dissemination of misinformation. The country has seen the consequences of misinformation, including faux videos designed to stoke ethnic discord; a fake audio recording attributed to a politician and manipulated images circulating among users of Facebook and TikTok at a pace that outstrips corrections. These are not hypothetical dangers; they have sparked real-life violence, displacement, and loss of life.
A 2022 study found that the information climate in Ethiopia is actually highly polarized. Government officials, opposition parties, and members of the diaspora are utilizing channels like Telegram or WhatsApp to distribute what may be false information. The emergence of AI has only perpetuated this problem because generating false information has become very easy for anybody to do. Previously deepfake required expensive high-end production tools to create, but nowadays anyone with access to a smartphone can produce deepfake content. In addition, individuals throughout Africa are utilizing AI for voice cloning of news anchors/reporter’s voices and using them in disinformation campaigns.
Fact-checking organizations such as HaqCheck demonstrate through their work that lies can convert formerly live-together communities into warring communities. The organization engages in meticulously conducted, underfunded fact-checking projects, which are unable to keep pace with events since powerful technologies have been introduced to the information ecosystem without strong value benchmarks. Both the Ethiopian Media Council and UNESCO have expressed concern that unregulated AI represents a form of censorship and surveillance and poses particular risks to journalists already facing pressure.
The Existing Strains on Ethiopian Journalism
Journalists in Ethiopia are facing a new obstacle in their industry due to disruptions brought on by AI. As many of them already work in hard circumstances, AI creates additional vulnerabilities to an environment that has already been affected by self-censorship and pressuring institutions. Governments can now monitor their online journalistic activities more effectively through surveillance programs, as well as flood information space with pro-government content through automatic content production, and in turn create further erosion to the journalist’s ability to effectively reach audiences because misinformation will erode public trust and the credibility of all journalists.
These state-run media organizations’ failure to develop AI regulations to govern their operations and media content failing to demonstrate evidence of originality creates a stark contrast with how they are positioned for success as journalism continues to evolve over time.
Charting Ethiopia’s AI Future
Ethiopia requires more than cautions; it requires thoughtful constructed infrastructure; regulations, training, and investment across institutions to be made for the Ethiopian environment, not to be simply copied from somewhere else.
AI literacy must be incorporated into the curriculum of journalism schools. Unless journalists understand how AI tools function, they will be unable to evaluate the content generated by an AI tool, or even understand the limitations of what an AI tool may be able to produce.
Ethiopian journalists and members of civil society must create their own ethical framework specific to Ethiopia; they should not simply accept one written by a foreign technology company. Issues related to oversight, disclosure, or misuse, for example, are unique to Ethiopia and will therefore require unique solutions.
The establishment of Amharic and other indigenous language-based AI systems must be made a priority on a national scale. A media sector that uses only AI systems trained in the English language will regularly be unsuccessful at reflecting the realities of the Ethiopian environment.
The very foundation of democracy is dependent upon adequately funded organizations such as fact-checkers, like HaqCheck. It is not a small mistake to leave them severely low-funded (as if they were just another underfunded NGO) while dealing with algorithmically-driven spam; it’s a serious danger to democracy.
Press freedom is critical to all of this as well. AI, in the hands of a free press, is capable of providing checks and balances; but when it is used by an oppressive press, it becomes the decoration on an institution that has already been stripped of its power.
Choosing Ethiopia’s Journalism Future
The challenges and opportunities in reporting in Ethiopia are significant, and as such the media has provided a broad scope of reporting to assist Ethiopians to better understand individual ethnicities, regions and languages. Along with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) this means that the role of the journalism profession is both increasingly easier and much more threatening to fulfil.
The end question usefully posed in respect of what direction the media is taking in Ethiopia is not about the technology aspect; it is about the kind of news and information environment that Ethiopians will be exposed to; whether it is creating a greater level of understanding or creating a greater number of differences and whether AI will be used as an accountability mechanism or a means of undermining it.
Journalists, editorial staff, owners of the media in Ethiopia, policymakers, and citizens will have to decide how they wish AI to be used. The rapid pace of technological advance means this must be decided soon.
