GenAI tools are reshaping the information environment in ways most audiences never see. From the data that trains them to the labour that maintains them, their inner workings raise urgent questions for journalism and democratic accountability.

Our world is in the midst of a disruption triggered by the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Companies selling AI tools have become the most valuable corporations in modern times, worth trillions of dollars – more than the GDPs of most countries. They are becoming a pervasive influence on social, commercial, and political life, and shaking up industries.

The media industry is among those facing new kinds of challenges due to the rise of AI. The practice and delivery of journalism, which is a vital component for functioning and healthy democracies, is changing in ways that are not obvious to its consumers.

To understand the impact of AI on our information environment and its political consequences requires a basic understanding of what GenAI is and how it works. We need to “lift the bonnet” on what will increasingly power the information we receive and consume.

The development of GenAI begins with collecting vast amounts of data – including text, images, videos, and sounds – by crawling and scraping the Internet. Everything from journalism, academic outputs, the public web, and text chats is gathered as data. This is bolstered by compilations of

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