The World Journalists Conference 2025, one of the most important gatherings for media professionals this year, took place in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from March 30 to April 5, with the participation of 62 journalists from 52 countries.
“I have never been so scared in my life”.
Polish journalist Natalia Szewczak opened her speech in Seoul with a deeply moving personal story. On Christmas 2020, she gave birth to twins, Lena and Filip, in her sixth month of pregnancy. The babies spent 65 days in the intensive care. What seemed like a private maternal ordeal became the material for a powerful investigative article.
From that personal experience, Natalia wrote a report exposing a major gap in Poland's maternity leave policy: parents of premature babies were given shorter leave than those of full-term infants. The article sparked a public outcry and led to a change in the law. “AI could not have written this story”, she said – “AI cannot feel a mother’s fear, cannot sense injustice in a law, and certainly cannot fight to change it”.
Polish journalist Natalia Szewczak (left) speaking at the conference.
The central theme of the conference was artificial intelligence (AI): a powerful tool that is transforming the way we report, write, and tell stories. But is AI a friend or a threat? An assistant or a replacement? How can we harness technology without losing journalism’s essence – accuracy, truthfulness, and humanity?
Many journalists shared how they are now using AI on a daily basis to analyze data, summarize texts, generate headlines, and even create illustrative clips. In the United States, The New York Times used AI to analyze over 400 audio recordings related to the elections, totaling over 5 million words. Using AI, the reporters distilled 500 hours of content down to 5 hours of footage worth reviewing. But most importantly, every detail in the final investigation was manually verified by humans to ensure not even a single punctuation mark or nuance was off.
This The New York Times case serves as a reminder: AI can save time, but it cannot replace human judgment or conscience. That’s why transparency was a recurring emphasis throughout the conference. Journalism must disclose when , where and how it’s used because reader trust is hard to build and easy to lose.
With hope came concern. Deepfakes, misinformation, and algorithmic manipulation make AI a dangerous weapon in unethical hands\. Many speakers warned of the risk of losing control over information, as AI can now generate videos, images, and even voices that are indistinguishable from reality. If such content spreads, who will be held accountable?
Journalist Nhat Hoa (left) at the World Journalists Conference 2025.
Another hot topic that has sparked intense debate is copyright and fairness. Major tech companies like OpenAI and Google have been accused of using journalistic content to train AI models without consent or compensation. In Europe, especially in Poland and the Republic of Korea, media organizations are demanding that these corporations pay for and respect intellectual property rights. “Journalism must not become a free data pool for AI training”, one delegate said.
Despite the challenges, the atmosphere at the conference was far from pessimistic. On the contrary, many initiatives were presented to steer AI development in an ethical and humane direction. Several newsrooms have started offering free public workshops to educate audiences about AI: how it’s being used, how to detect AI-generated content, and how to protect against disinformation. International journalism training organizations are also expanding courses on responsible AI use, leveraging technology while upholding journalistic standards.
The conference ended with a strong message: AI is a tool, but humans decide how it’s used. Progress doesn’t come from technology alone, but from pairing it with ethics, empathy, and the desire to serve the truth. When a journalist stands before an audience and tells a story that changed a law, drawn from their own lived experience, it reminds us: journalists tell real stories, touch real hearts, and move real societies. No matter how advanced technology becomes, the core values of journalism – accuracy, empathy, and ethics – can never be replaced by machines.
“In a world overflowing with information, traditional journalism will remain the compass – if we hold onto our integrity, honesty, and responsibility”, one delegate shared. The World Journalists Conference 2025 closed in this spirit – “Do not fear AI – lead it”.
