TL;DR
Indian newsrooms are adopting AI rapidly to cut costs and publish faster. While this improves efficiency, it also raises serious risks around accuracy, accountability, and trust. The real challenge is not whether AI will be used, but how transparently and responsibly it is governed.
Why Indian Newsrooms Turned to AI So Quickly
Indian media entered the mid-2020s under intense pressure. Advertising revenue shifted to platforms, newsroom budgets shrank, and the demand for 24x7 digital updates exploded. AI promised a way to do more with fewer people. By 2024–2026, most large Indian digital newsrooms were already using AI tools, formally or informally, across their workflows.
Where AI Is Used Today
Automated summaries and rewrites
AI is widely used to convert press releases, regulatory filings, and earnings reports into publishable articles. This saves time, but nuance is often lost, especially in legal and policy reporting.
Breaking news speed
AI-generated first drafts are now common during breaking events. This explains why incorrect figures or interpretations appear briefly before being silently edited. Speed has improved, transparency has not.
Translation at scale
AI helps translate English news into Indian languages at scale. However, mistranslations of legal and administrative terms have already caused misinformation within regional audiences.
Where Credibility Starts to Break
Hallucinations and fabricated context
Large language models can sound confident while being wrong. In court coverage, AI-assisted drafts have incorrectly treated oral observations as binding orders, a serious factual error.
Blurred accountability
When AI-assisted articles are wrong, responsibility becomes unclear. Indian newsrooms rarely disclose AI use, weakening trust when corrections appear without explanation.
Sensational framing
Poorly constrained AI systems tend to exaggerate conflict and emotional framing, amplifying polarization in an already divided media ecosystem.
How The Balanced News Uses AI Differently
Unlike most outlets, The Balanced News does not use AI to write news. AI is used to analyze how stories are covered across 50+ Indian sources, detect political bias, and expose framing differences. AI audits journalism instead of replacing it.
Bias detection, not content generation
TBN’s AI compares left, center, and right coverage of the same story, making bias visible instead of hidden. Readers see how narratives differ before forming opinions.
Designed to slow readers down
Most media AI optimizes for speed and engagement. TBN’s AI surfaces underreported but important stories through tools like Lens Score, encouraging reflection over reaction.
Transparency as a product
Bias scores, source comparisons, and methodology are shown openly. AI is not hidden because trust is not outsourced.
The Trade-Off: Cost vs Trust
AI delivers short-term efficiency gains but risks long-term credibility if used opaquely. Once trust erodes, it is difficult to rebuild. Responsible AI governance is therefore not optional for journalism.
Conclusion
AI is now embedded in Indian journalism. The future will be defined by whether newsrooms prioritize speed or credibility. Used responsibly, AI can strengthen journalism. Used carelessly, it can quietly undermine it.
