Tackling the challenges of artificial intelligence for public communication: Governance and accountability discourses about the responsible use of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the landscape of public communication. However, while AI technologies allow for more participatory and dialogic processes, they can also facilitate destructive communication patterns including hate speech, online harassment, and disinformation or misinformation. Such trends raise concerns about how to regulate the responsible use of AI in public communication. This contribution intends to reflect the challenges AI presents to public communication and examine the governance and accountability frameworks that seek to ensure transparency, fairness, and responsibility. To this end, the authors established a database of 435 national and international codes of ethics and other normative guidelines. These documents were subjected to an inductive thematic analysis to identify key themes and analyze differences and similarities from a comparative perspective. The empirical study reveals significant gaps in most of the documents but also collects suggestions on the way toward a coherent governance framework for AI in public communication.