Inteligencia artificial y Derechos Humanos: análisis en El País (1976-2024)

Abstract

This article examines how the newspaper El País has covered artificial intelligence (AI) and Human Rights in throughout its history. To this end, we conducted a mixed-method content analysis, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, of all items published by the newspaper from its founding in 1976 to March 2024 under the tag artificial intelligence (N=2,926) that contain references to ethics, law, and Human Rights. We paid particular attention to issues most closely related to the right to information, namely image rights, honor and privacy rights, copyright, and information manipulation. The results reveal a substantial number of news and opinion pieces (N=250), drawing on international sources and addressing these issues both from a normative perspective and through references to observable realities reflected in newsworthy events. The findings show that, in practice, the risks to human beings identified by the European Artificial Intelligence Act –both unacceptable and high-risk– do exist, are present on the media agenda, and are the subject of reporting and analysis in El País. The article’s main contribution, which connects with an extensive body of research on press coverage of AI, lies in its longitudinal analysis of a single newspaper over nearly 50 years, making it possible to observe the evolution of media attention to this technology over time.