JOURNALISM AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. THE TREATMENT OF CHATBOTS IN THE SPANISH PRESS

The aim of this article is to analyze how the Spanish press treats artificial intelligence (AI) and, specifically, the latest generation chatbots, following the launch of the free version of ChatGPT in December 2022. To determinate this, it was considered the eight national newspapers with both hybrid (El Pais, La Vanguardia, ABC, El Mundo) and digital natives (El Espanol, Okdiario, elDiario.es, Publico). From each of these sources, the latest 20 news articles related to AI (n=160) are selected and subjected to a rigorous content analysis using a predefined framework. In addition, a sentiment analysis is performed by ChatGPT and BingChat to identify the predominant attitude of the press towards the AI (positive, negative, or neutral). The findings allow us to conclude, among other results, that the treatment is eminently informative and rarely interpretive. Moreover, the texts primarily focus on the possible uses of this technology; they mainly resort to sources from economic, pedagogical and scientific fields; and they adopt a basically neutral attitude towards AI.