The ABC has made AI mandatory for every staff member — and quietly weakened its transparency rules at the same time
It follows reports Nine told journalists at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the AFR that AI use is mandatory and their usage is being monitored.
THE ABC has selected Anthropic's Claude as its standard enterprise-wide AI tool, with a pilot rollout of 100 "AI Champions" beginning in July and mandatory training required for all staff before they get access.
An internal email from managing director Hugh Marks and head of people and culture Deena Amorelli, obtained by Crikey, said Claude would sit alongside existing tools ABC Assist and Microsoft Copilot. The ABC refused to say how much it is paying Anthropic.
Full disclosure: The Glass uses Claude as an editorial tool. This story was drafted with Claude's assistance and fact-checked by its editor. We are telling you that. The ABC's position on whether it needs to tell you has just become more flexible.
Alongside the rollout, the broadcaster rewrote its AI transparency principle. The old version committed to informing audiences how AI was being used and pledged not to use it in ways that could mislead. The new version says only that the ABC will be open about AI use "when it could materially affect their understanding of the content we provide."
That is transparency as a default replaced by transparency at management's discretion.
The timing matters.
Staff walked out on March 25 in the ABC's first strike in more than 20 years. A revised enterprise agreement was reached in May but has not been finalised by Fair Work. Unionised staff told Crikey they were not consulted on the AI changes despite the EBA requiring it.
The ABC is not alone. In April, Nine's publishing boss Tory Maguire told journalists at the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the AFR that the board expected everyone to be using AI, that Nine was "underperforming" in its uptake, and that management would be monitoring usage. That is not a policy. That is a performance metric.
AI has its place in newsrooms. But there is a difference between giving journalists a tool and tracking whether they use it enough — and a difference between transparency as a principle and transparency only when it suits.