趋势解读：More people get news from AI chatbots，but，解读最新研究结论

Global use of AI chatbots for news has risen from 7 to 10 percent, according to the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026. While 44 percent of active users trust AI-generated news, only 4 percent regularly click through to original sources. Chatbots risk reinforcing users' existing beliefs and splintering public discourse through hyper-personalized content, but they can also make complex topics more accessible and expose people to a wider range of perspectives. The Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026 finds that weekly use of AI chatbots for news has climbed from 7 to 10 percent globally. AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are playing a bigger, though still small, role in how people get their news. That's the takeaway from the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026. Weekly chatbot use for news rose from 7 to 10 percent worldwide. Just 1 percent of respondents call AI chatbots their main news source. The growth is mostly coming from markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Southern and Eastern Europe. Chatbot news use skews young and engaged, according to the study. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 17 percent use chatbots for news, compared to just 5 percent in the oldest age group. The 25-to-34 bracket saw the strongest relative growth, jumping 4 percentage points. Ad Usage among self-described "news lovers" hits 18 percent, well above the 7 percent among casual consumers. People with extreme political views also use AI chatbots for news more often: 16 percent on the far left and 15 percent on the far right. Researcher Dr. Amy Ross Arguedas says these groups simply tend to be more interested in news. Ad DEC_D_Incontent-1 Across the 45 markets surveyed, asking follow-up questions is the top use case at 42 percent. That's followed by getting current news (35 percent), summaries (34 percent), checking the reliability of news sources (33 percent), and simplifying news (30 percent). In markets with low press freedom scores, like Hong Kong and Turkey, and in markets where trust in news is low, like Hungary and Romania, using chatbots to check source reliability ranks especially high. Globally, 42 percent of users say they want more depth or explanation. Another 39 percent say AI is faster than other ways of getting news. Ad Only 37 percent of respondents trust most news. Trust in news from AI chatbots sits at just 20 percent among the general population. But the picture shifts among actual users: 44 percent of chatbot users trust AI-generated news, compared to only 17 percent of non-users, according to the report . At the market level, the data shows a strong link between trust and usage; much stronger than on social media. The study attributes this to the fact that using chatbots for news is a more deliberate choice than the often passive way people stumble across news on social media. Ad DEC_D_Incontent-2 Across all respondents in 27 markets, only 4 percent say they always or often click from AI chatbots to original sources. For search engines, that number is 19 percent. For social media, 17 percent. The gap partly reflects chatbots' much smaller user base for news, and, of course, how the system works. If I get an answer insteado of an link, of course I have less incentive to click and this shows in the data. Ad