Australians are calling for greater transparency around the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in media, with a new report finding the majority want platforms and publishers to be legally required to disclose when content has been generated or altered using the technology.
Three in four Australians say AI-generated content makes it harder to know what is real online, while 84 per cent believe platforms and publishers should be legally required to label AI-generated content.
The appetite for transparency could also have commercial consequences for media platforms, with 71 per cent of respondents saying they would stop using a platform that failed to clearly disclose its use of AI.
The findings come from Deloitte’s 15th annual Media & Entertainment Consumer Insights report, which surveyed more than 2,000 Australian media consumers across five generations, examining changing media habits, entertainment spending and attitudes towards emerging technologies.
Traditional news publishers continue to hold a significant trust advantage over AI-generated news, with 79 per cent of Australians finding national Australian news publishers at least moderately trustworthy, compared with just 38 per cent for AI-generated news. Independent and regional publishers also scored strongly, with 78 per cent of respondents saying they trusted them at least moderately.
Deloitte Australia Telecommunications, Media and Technology lead partner Peter Corbett said traditional news publishers had a clear trust advantage, even as Australians increasingly incorporate AI into their everyday lives.
“Traditional news publishers have a clear trust premium over AI-generated news, even as Australians bring AI into their everyday lives,” Corbett said. “Australians are more willing to trust AI content when a human has reviewed and edited it, and they want to know when AI has been used. Using these tools does not mean accepting their output without question.”
The report also highlighted concerns around the broader societal impact of AI, with 53 per cent of Australians extremely concerned about harmful deepfake content affecting children and young people, while 49 per cent expressed significant concern about the spread of misinformation.
Despite these concerns, AI is increasingly becoming part of how Australians access information. Some 57 per cent of respondents said AI-generated search summaries make searching easier and encourage them to search more frequently.
However, around one in 10 Australians said they no longer click through to source material after viewing an AI-generated search summary, raising further questions about the implications for publishers and the traffic they receive from search platforms.
There is also a significant generational divide in how Australians perceive and trust AI-generated content. Almost half (49 per cent) of Gen Z respondents find AI-generated news at least moderately trustworthy, compared with just 21 per cent of Boomers.
Gen Z are also considerably more confident in their ability to identify AI-generated or significantly altered content, with 72 per cent believing they can detect it, compared with 31 per cent of Boomers.
Despite the difference in attitudes towards AI, trust in traditional news publishers remains remarkably consistent across generations. National Australian news publishers are trusted by 79 per cent of Gen Z and 80 per cent of Boomers.
Corbett said the findings highlighted the growing divide in how different generations assess the credibility of online content.
“There is a stark generational divide in how Australians judge AI-generated content. Gen Z are more confident they can identify it and more willing to trust AI-generated news, while Boomers are more sceptical and less certain they can tell what is real,” he said.
“Yet both generations place similarly high trust in national news publishers, underlining traditional news’s trust premium and the importance of clear disclosure as AI becomes part of everyday life.”
Beyond AI, the report also examined broader shifts in Australia’s media consumption habits.
Average weekly media and entertainment consumption remained unchanged at 45 hours and 20 minutes, but the way Australians are spending that time is shifting.
Time spent consuming news and magazine content increased from two hours and five minutes a week in 2025 to two hours and 30 minutes in 2026.
Social media consumption also climbed by 30 minutes to an average of five hours and 50 minutes each week, while audio listening increased by more than an hour to 13 hours and 30 minutes.
Gaming and sport are also attracting more attention, with average weekly gaming time increasing from three hours and five minutes to three hours and 45 minutes, while time spent watching sport rose from two hours and 35 minutes to three hours.
However, access to news remains a sticking point for audiences, with almost half of Australians (47 per cent) identifying excessive advertising (25 per cent) or paywalls (22 per cent) as the biggest barriers to accessing the news content that interests them.
