For its first-ever Newsmakers Debate, Mediaweek brought together journalist Joe Hildebrand and digital and AI strategist Rita Arrigo to tackle one of the biggest questions shaping the industry: Is artificial intelligence killing journalism, or saving it?
The result was a lively, sometimes combative conversation that captured both sides of an issue dividing newsrooms across the country.
‘The algorithms are stealing from us’
For Hildebrand, AI is not a creative revolution but a digital parasite. He sees artificial intelligence as the next, and perhaps most dangerous, phase in journalism’s long-running existential crisis.
“It’s incredibly disturbing,” he said. “Journalism has been going through existential crisis after existential crisis for decades now, but this one feels different.”
Hildebrand draws a direct line between AI and the social media giants that disrupted the economics of news in the 2010s.
“You basically have search engines or social media giants harvesting the work of journalists and then on-selling it on their platforms to advertisers as though it’s their own product,” he said.
“They’re taking the money from advertisers that used to fund real journalism and taking it home to Silicon Valley.”
In his view, AI is repeating that pattern, just faster and more efficiently.
“The machines are stealing from us,” he said. “Every bit of income that’s spent on AI-generated content is less money for journalism. Either journalism will die, and everything ends up being a compilation of what ‘randos’ post online, or governments will step in and regulate it.”
Joe Hildebrand
‘The renaissance of journalism’
Rita Arrigo couldn’t disagree more. She sees AI not as journalism’s downfall but as its reset, but rather, as a tool that could restore credibility to trusted news brands.
“I actually think it’s the renaissance of journalism,” she said.
“There’s so much fake news out there, so much AI slop on social media, that people no longer know what’s real. That’s exactly why credible journalism will come back.”
Arrigo believes that as misinformation floods the internet, audiences will turn back to established publishers for truth.
“When we really want to get the news, we have to go to respected brands,” she said. “People will start respecting the voice of journalism again because that’s the only way they can get truth.”
Unlike social media platforms, she argues, generative AI tools often credit their sources rather than simply scrape them.
“When you use generative AI today, there are no ads in it,” Arrigo said. “There’s also an incredible amount of references back to actual reports and journalistic articles that have been written. It’s more repurposed than stolen.”
The human connection
For Hildebrand, however, the real issue goes beyond economics – it’s about empathy.
“AI can already write up a football match or a court report. It can even write an opinion piece,” he said. “The question is, will people be able to tell the difference – and even if they can, will they still want a human?”
He believes the answer is clear.
“People want to feel like they’re connecting with another human being,” he said. “When you’re reading an opinion piece or listening to a podcast, what people want is to feel like someone understands them. If it’s an algorithm doing that, it doesn’t fill that emotional void.”
For Hildebrand, the value of journalism isn’t just accuracy, it’s humanity.
Rita Arrigo
‘AI should enable, not replace’
Arrigo agrees on one key point: journalism must stay human. But she argues that AI can support journalists rather than replace them, especially in resource-strapped newsrooms.
“When newsrooms are stretched thin, especially in regional areas, AI can really help them improve efficiency,” she said. “It can reduce the time it takes to gather notes, transcribe interviews and summarise stories.”
Still, she draws a firm line at automation without oversight. “It’s really important that content has an editor and a human voice,” she said. “It should be reviewed and shaped by journalists. AI is faster than creating something from scratch, but it still needs editorial oversight.”
Arrigo has even tested the possibilities herself, developing a personal AI assistant trained on her own writing and talks. “It’s kind of democratised the ability to talk to me,” she said.
“Instead of having to book a meeting or read through all my content, people can ask it questions about my work.”
She believes that balance, human creativity powered by AI, will define the next generation of journalism.
“When you bring in human talent and mix it with AI, we can actually produce much better content than we could have done in the past,” she said.
Listen to the full conversation on the Mediaweek Newsmakers Podcast.