Embrace the AI,but keep the journalist: Public attitudes toward AI involved fact-checking in China

Abstract

While artificial intelligence poses significant challenges to journalistic authority, professional boundaries, and core functions, limited research has examined its impact on critical practices such as fact-checking, especially from the perspective of public perception. This question is particularly salient in China, where fact-checking not only upholds journalism’s role in safeguarding truth but also raises concerns over its potential use for content censorship. Drawing on an online survey (N = 1058), this study investigates Chinese public perceptions of three fact-checking approaches—AI-only, journalist-only, and AI-assisted—and the factors shaping these views. Results show that while the public generally supports AI involvement, there is a stronger preference for hybrid models that combine technological efficiency with professional oversight. Trust in AI and positive machine heuristics were positively associated with support for AI-only models, whereas both positive and negative machine heuristics had distinct effects on support for AI-assisted approaches. Moreover, opposition to censorship predicted lower support for AI-assisted fact-checking, though this was moderated by perceived individual and societal harm from misinformation. These findings shed light on how public expectations of AI in fact-checking are shaped and offer a contextual basis for understanding technologically adaptive journalistic authority as a mode of transition in the AI era.