Technopessimism in the Spanish Print Media in the Public Debate on the Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence

The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has intensified public debate about its social implications. In this context, journalistic coverage of technological advancements plays a key role in shaping public opinion. As a mediator of public debate, the press has the responsibility to provide critical and balanced coverage of these important issues. This study analyzes how the media represents ethical concerns regarding the social effects of AI. Based on a corpus of 912 articles from 12 Spanish newspapers, the topics and voices shaping the debate over a one-month period, five months after the launch of ChatGPT, were identified. The results reveal the main discourses organizing public debate, highlighting a predominant technopessimist perspective that emphasizes the potential risks AI poses to humanity and the urgent need to establish ethical standards. Additionally, it shows that large tech companies have played a prominent role in the debate, acting not only as key players in technological development but also as the main voices driving the discussion, in contrast to the limited participation of political, governmental, and civil society actors. While no systematic differences were observed between the newspapers analyzed, some differences in positioning emerged when comparing traditional media with digital- native outlets.