AI has become indispensable in science. It helps solve a variety of problems, from classifying galaxies and improving weather predictions, to recording rare events such as supernova explosions.
Still, many science communicators, among them space journalists like myself, are cautious, wary or even opposed to the idea of using AI in their work.
Generative AI programs such as ChatGPT, trained on large amounts of data, cause the most controversy. Their use often is met with skepticism, and concerns around ethics, accuracy and credibility.
AI has become so much a part of our work that sometimes we don't even realize it's there: tools like Grammarly and spell checkers detect errors in our writing, and many of us use translation programs. Those arguing about whether it is ethical to use AI in journalism overlook the fact that we already use these technologies every day.
If used responsibly, AI can be a powerful ally that optimizes a journalist's work, without compromising ethics. In this article, I offer insights to help media professionals who cover science-related topics understand how they can leverage AI to enhance their work.
Adapting complex scientific texts for different audiences
Science journalists must use clear language to help their audiences digest complex topics. They can leverage AI to assess the accessibility of their reporting, and then make it more understandable without sacrificing accuracy.
For example, readers of a specialized space magazine are more likely to appreciate a dry description of the technical characteristics of the neutron detector on board the TGO spacecraft of the ExoMars mission. The audience of a mainstream science publication, on the other hand, will need descriptions made more accessible, including through illustrative metaphors.
Sabrina Heike Kessler, senior researcher and teaching associate at the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich, sees great potential in ChatGPT for popularizing science. “ChatGPT is good at explaining complicated issues simply,” she noted.
Science communicator and NASA Astrobiology Communication Guild member Rajat Bhushan Gupta explained how he utilizes AI in this way: “I use artificial intelligence to tailor the language of my writing to the target audience, simplifying complex topics for the general public. For example, I first sketch out a draft and then ask ChatGPT or Perplexity to tailor the style to a certain type of audience or a specific age group.”
Gupta uses AI to analyze scientific articles, too: he uploads papers to one of the apps and asks it to explain them from different perspectives, identify gaps or aspects that have not been sufficiently researched, and limitations, such as problems with methods, that might affect the accuracy of findings. He also uses AI tools to visualize data and images.
Processing and understanding scientific information
Writing an in-depth article on a science-related topic may require a journalist to consult no shortage of reports, textbooks or encyclopedias. Some journalists may need information translated from English into their native language.
For those entering science journalism without a background in a STEM field, AI can be an invaluable resource: it helps us check how well we understand complex concepts, simplifies long technical texts, and extracts the most important information from scientific papers.
“Explain it to me as if I’m a five-year-old” is a useful prompt for an AI tool to break down complex material.
Translation, fact-checking and research
ChatGPT and other AI tools like DeepL help journalists translate texts and find definitions for complex terminology. About five years ago, I spent several hours searching for a translation of a technical term to include in an infographic about a Mars orbiter. Today, using an AI tool to translate the same term takes me less than a second.
Just as importantly, journalists can use AI tools to fact-check information quickly. They can also use AI tools to retrieve information, and identify logical inconsistencies, contradictions in data, and errors in research. This can be especially handy when analyzing large data sets.
Enhanced connection with the audience
AI can be applied to analyze audience sentiment, according to Broader Impacts Productions, a company that specializes in scientific video content.
“Often in [science communication] we struggle to determine how our work is received, and evaluation needs to become a more central component of our comms efforts if we are to improve effectiveness. ChatGPT can perform basic sentiment analysis on [a] bit of text, which can speed up your evaluation & iteration process,” states the company’s website.
AI as a resource for neurodivergent journalists
The last benefit of AI I want to mention may be useful to all media professionals, but it can be especially relevant to neurodivergent journalists. A 2024 study by Press Gazette found that many journalists may be neurodivergent — ADHD and autism, most commonly — even if they don’t disclose their diagnosis.
Although conditions like ADHD and autism offer certain advantages — the ability to hyperfocus, for instance — they can also create challenges, significantly slowing down workflow, and even contributing to burnout.
AI can be an indispensable assistant in these cases. I have been diagnosed with ADHD, and I use AI regularly to optimize my work. When there is too much information and my concentration drops, it is much more convenient to use an AI tool (e.g. ChatGPT, Otter.ai, Descript) to transcribe or dictate text and then structure the material. When thoughts rush faster than your fingers can type, AI helps you stay on top of ideas and find the right place for them.
Some today see AI as a panacea, while others see it as the harbinger of the end of journalism. A report from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University notes: “As with any new technology entering the news, the effects of AI will neither be as dire as the doomsayers predict, nor as utopian as the enthusiasts hope.”
In an ideal scenario, as science journalist and editor Mićo Tatalović writes, being freed from routine tasks would give science journalists more time for “in-person reporting from the field, doing investigations, and spending more time on big stories that really matter and that computers can’t quite manage yet.”
Until we reach that point, journalists would be wise to capitalize on the technological advances, while never leaving their core journalistic ethics and standards behind.
Photo by Benjamin Voros from Unsplash.
This article was originally published on IJNet Russian. It was translated into English by Alexandra Tyan.