The vocabulary of editorial AI
The terms of AI applied to the news media and of the journalist’s trade, each defined in a few lines.
AEO (answer engine optimisation)
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Optimising content so that AI assistants and answer engines, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews, reuse and cite it. It relies on short answers, self-contained definitions and explicit sources.
Example A news site opens its explainers with a short, sourced answer. An AI assistant can then cite the site when a reader asks the question.
Why it matters Some readers get their information from assistants’ answers, without clicking on a link. Being cited in those answers has become a question of visibility for newsrooms.
Related terms: Editorial AI, AI hallucination
AI audit trail
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A record of where each passage of a text comes from: written by the journalist, produced by AI or taken from a source. The trail documents how the text was produced. A newsroom can show it when asked how it uses AI.
Example Before publication, a sub-editor checks an article’s audit trail. The trail shows that the introduction was produced by AI, then corrected by the journalist.
Why it matters Since 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the AI Act has required transparency about texts on matters of public interest generated or manipulated by AI. The audit trail shows which part of the text comes from AI and who reviewed it.
Related terms: Editorial AI, AI content marking, Wire story rewriting
AI content marking
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A technical, machine-readable signal embedded in AI-generated content so that its origin can be detected: metadata or an invisible watermark. Article 50(2) of the AI Act requires providers of generative AI systems to apply this marking.
Example An image produced by an image generator carries, in its metadata, a signed statement of its artificial origin. A verification tool can read it before publication.
Why it matters Marking makes it possible to identify AI-generated content after it has been shared. In some cases, Article 50(4) also requires professional users to add a visible disclosure.
Related terms: Deepfake, Content provenance, AI audit trail
Read the full page AI hallucination
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False information produced by an AI model and presented as accurate: a wrong figure, an invented quote, a source that does not exist. The model produces plausible text. Nothing guarantees that this text is accurate.
Example An AI summarises a report and attributes to an elected official a sentence they never said. The journalist finds the report and sees that the quote is not in it.
Why it matters A published hallucination becomes the newsroom’s error. To avoid it, the journalist must be able to trace every fact back to its source.
Related terms: Fact-checking, Editorial AI, AI audit trail
Read the full page Content provenance
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Information that traces the origin and history of a piece of digital content: who created it, with which tools, and what changes it has undergone. The C2PA standard describes a format for attaching this information to the file and signing it.
Example An agency distributes a photo with its provenance information. Before publication, a newsroom checks the image’s edit history.
Why it matters Provenance helps distinguish an authentic document from a manipulated one. For a text, the AI audit trail plays a similar role: it shows where each passage comes from.
Related terms: AI content marking, Deepfake, AI audit trail
Data sovereignty
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An organisation’s ability to choose where its data is stored and processed, and under which law. For a newsroom, the question concerns the drafts, interviews, contacts and sources it gives to a tool.
Example Before uploading interviews to an AI tool, a newsroom checks where the tool stores and processes its data. It also checks whether the content is used to train models.
Why it matters Data given to a tool can reveal sources. Where it is stored and how it may be used are part of source protection.
Related terms: Journalism ethics, Editorial AI
Deepfake
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AI-generated or manipulated image, audio or video content that resembles existing persons, objects, places, entities or events and would falsely appear to a person to be authentic or truthful. This definition comes from Article 3 of the AI Act, which uses the term “deep fake”.
Example A doctored video attributes to an elected official words they never said. A newsroom that shows the video in order to debunk it states that it is fake.
Why it matters Since 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the AI Act has required professional users of an AI system that produces a deepfake to disclose that the content has been generated or manipulated. For an evidently artistic, satirical or fictional work, it is enough to disclose that such content exists, in a way that does not hamper the display of the work.
Related terms: AI content marking, Content provenance, Fact-checking
Editorial AI
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Artificial intelligence designed for journalists’ work. It applies the rules of the trade: citing its sources, respecting journalism ethics and keeping a record of what it produces.
Example A newsroom prepares an article from several wire stories with an editorial AI. The tool shows the source of each fact. The journalist reviews, corrects and approves the text before publication.
Why it matters A general-purpose assistant ignores the rules of the press. It can invent a source or erase where a passage came from. An editorial AI is designed so that the journalist can check every fact and every quote before publication.
Related terms: AI hallucination, AI audit trail, Wire story rewriting
Read the full page Fact-checking
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Checking the accuracy of a claim, a quote or a figure by going back to primary sources. The term also refers to a journalistic genre: an article that examines a public statement and says whether it is accurate.
Example A fact-checking unit examines a figure quoted in a viral statement. It finds the official data and publishes an article that shows the gap.
Why it matters According to the European Commission’s guidelines on Article 50 of the AI Act, human review of an AI-generated text includes, at a minimum, checking its accuracy.
Related terms: AI hallucination, Journalism ethics, Deepfake
Journalism ethics
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The rules and duties that govern journalists’ work: checking facts, protecting sources, separating news from comment, correcting errors. In France, the reference texts are the Charter of Professional Ethics for Journalists, adopted in 1918 and revised in 2011, and the 1971 Munich Declaration.
Example Before publishing sensitive information from a single source, a journalist seeks a second, independent confirmation.
Why it matters An AI tool can invent a fact or erase where a text came from. Publishing such a text without checking it breaches these duties. The rules apply whatever tool is used.
Related terms: Fact-checking, AI hallucination, Editorial AI
Wire story
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A short, factual text that a news agency such as AFP, Reuters or AP sends to its clients. A wire story follows a fixed format: a headline, an opening paragraph with the essentials, then the details, with the date and the source. Newsrooms publish it as it stands, check it or rewrite it.
Example On election night, a newsroom publishes the wire story announcing the first results as a news alert. It then prepares its own analysis.
Why it matters Wire stories provide the starting information for a large share of news articles. Crediting the agency tells readers where the information comes from.
Related terms: Wire story rewriting, Editorial AI
Wire story rewriting
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Rewriting a news agency’s wire story into an article published by a newsroom (in French, bâtonnage). The journalist takes the facts from the wire story. They adapt the headline, angle, length and style to the publication.
Example A wire story announces a company’s quarterly results. On a daily newspaper’s news desk, a journalist rewrites it with the paper’s own headline and standfirst. The article is online a few minutes later.
Why it matters An AI tool can produce a first draft of an article from a wire story. The newsroom then needs to know which part of the text comes from the AI and which source each fact rests on.
Related terms: Wire story, Editorial AI, AI audit trail
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