How The New York Times Reports on A.I. Images

The internet is awash in A.I.-generated video and images — think President Trump appearing to tame a tiger or unbelievable fitness transformations.But it’s rare for The New York Times to report on specific pieces of A.I.slop, even on days when a viral clip seems to be all anyone is talking about.

Why is that? How do we decide to report on certain images? And how do we know where to draw the line?For answers, we turned to three colleagues who seek clarity in a bewildering media world: Stuart A.Thompson, who reports on online influence; Aisha Khan, the deputy Standards editor; and Mark Scheffler, who leads the Visual Investigations team.These are edited excerpts from our conversation.How do we decide when A.I.

images and memes are newsworthy?STUART THOMPSON: This is a tricky question! It’s one we’ve been debating since long before A.I.came along.

Remember QAnon? It was this massive online conspiracy theory, but there was a lot of debate about when, why and how mainstream media should weigh in.My golden rule is that readers need to benefit from learning about it in some way.We don’t usually just debunk.

We try to explain — usually focused on the causes and consequences.Who made it, why and how do they benefit? Who is harmed? The article needs to reflect something deeper about society, technology or regulations, I think.

But it’s rarely obvious when to dive in.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....