Pacific journalists should not publish AI-generated information if they cannot verify where it came from, says Pasifika AI creator and Kanaky Tech founder Kevyn Wahuzue.
Wahuzue told PACNEWS that journalists using artificial intelligence must apply the same standards of verification and accountability to machines as they do to their own reporting.
“If you can’t show where it came from, don’t publish it.
“Every fact, every quote, every image. That’s the rule I built Pasifika AI on the machine has to show its sources or say it doesn’t know,” Wahuzue said.
He said AI could make journalism better, but only when the time saved by the technology was used to strengthen reporting rather than increase the volume of content produced.
“AI makes journalism better only if the time it saves goes back into journalism: more time in the field, more time checking, more time listening.
“If the time saved just becomes more content, it makes journalism worse,” Wahuzue told PACNEWS.
Wahuzue said journalists should never outsource key editorial responsibilities to AI, including relationships with sources, verification and decisions about what should or should not be published.
“What you never outsource: the relationship with the people in the story. The judgement of what matters, and of what shouldn’t be published at all. The verification. The responsibility,” he said.
He said the voice and cultural context of Pacific journalism also had to remain with journalists and the communities they report on.
“And the voice: the way a Pacific journalist tells a Pacific story, in the words of the people who live it.
“A machine can help carry the story. It can’t be the one who was there,” Wahuzue said.
Wahuzue said convenience was becoming a risk as journalists increasingly turned to AI because it could produce material faster.
“Yes. It’s the quiet risk, because nobody decides to lower their standards. It happens one shortcut at a time,” he said.
He said journalists should be prepared to disclose how AI was used in producing their stories.
“The test I use: would I be comfortable telling my readers exactly how this was made? If the answer is no, don’t do it. If it’s yes, tell them,” Wahuzue said.
He said the consequences of inaccurate AI-generated information could be particularly serious in Pacific communities, where people, families and cultural groups are closely connected.
“And speed isn’t neutral in the Pacific.
“A wrong fact about a person, a clan or a custom doesn’t disappear. It gets shared, repeated, and it can hurt people who have to live with it in a small community,” told PACNEWS.
Wahuzue said journalists should therefore place accuracy ahead of speed when using AI.
“Being first matters less than being right, and being right still takes a phone call,” he said.
His comments come as Pacific newsrooms assess how AI can be used in reporting while maintaining editorial independence, verification standards and Pacific cultural knowledge.
