World Media Summit adopts AI pact as Xinhua starts newsroom standards effort

News organizations have a new international effort to develop shared AI standards—but not a finished rulebook. At the World Media Summit’s November 7 opening ceremony in Beijing, delegates adopted a responsible-AI consensus. Xinhua also launched a related initiative whose 22 initial participants plan to spend about two years developing standards for AI use in media.

The seventh summit was jointly organized by Xinhua News Agency and the Beijing municipal government. It drew nearly 500 representatives from nearly 330 media outlets, think tanks and government bodies across 112 countries and regions, alongside the United Nations and other international organizations. Its theme, “Media in the Intelligent Age: From Consensus to Action,” put implementation at the center of the gathering.

A commitment and a standards project

The Beijing Consensus commits to inclusive and responsible AI use, with benefits reaching media organizations in every country and at different stages of development. It is a nonbinding political agreement, not an enforceable system of rules or sanctions, teleSUR reported. Its role is to guide voluntary cooperation rather than impose legal obligations on participating organizations.

The accompanying Global Media Initiative for the Joint Development of AI Application Standards sets out a more specific task. Participants plan to develop standards covering different media uses of AI, with media outlets validating them. The roughly two-year period is a development plan, not a claim that standards are already available.

The first 22 participants include Russia’s TASS, Malaysia’s Bernama, South Africa’s Independent Media, China’s People’s Daily and China Media Group. Xinhua describes the initiative as bringing together major media outlets and professional organizations around three safeguards:

• Information authenticity: safeguarding the authenticity of information as media organizations use AI.
• Data security: protecting data as part of the initiative’s proposed approach to AI applications.
• Media ethics: upholding professional ethics, with maintaining public trust as an overarching aim.

The initiative also calls for a global database of AI applications. That is a separate proposed output alongside the standards themselves. Both sit within an effort focused on how media organizations apply the technology, rather than a newly released AI model or newsroom product.

Sharing AI’s gains, not just setting safeguards

Access to technology was another central concern. Xinhua president Fu Hua urged media professionals to share new technologies and applications, exchange experience and close gaps in AI research, development and understanding. His argument linked responsible adoption to whether media workers have a fair chance to benefit—not only to whether individual tools have safeguards.

AFP chairman Fabrice Fries likewise argued that AI’s benefits should extend beyond a small number of companies or countries. He called for cooperation among media organizations, governments, businesses and universities. He also identified a specific requirement for the technology: training datasets should reflect the diversity of human societies and perspectives.

It is of crucial importance that we harness AI to improve and develop the media, rather than allowing it to serve as a replacement for media or as a tool for manipulating and deceiving the public,

Dejan Jazvic, editor-in-chief of the Federal News Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Verification remains the practical demand

Xinhua editor-in-chief Lyu Yansong warned that AI’s growing role across news production brings ethical risks and the proliferation of false information. His proposed response included sharing technological expertise, open-source models and training resources. That approach treats cooperation as a way to strengthen newsrooms’ ability to address risks, alongside the push to improve access.

Mohammed Alyami, director general of the Union of News Agencies of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, proposed an international framework for responsible journalism grounded in transparency, reliability and information verification. He urged media organizations to turn shared commitments into practical initiatives and partnerships—a call for operational follow-through rather than principles alone.

The effort remains voluntary. According to teleSUR, the summit announced no dedicated funding, binding mechanisms or permanent supervisory body. Those limits leave the standards-development project relying on participating organizations’ cooperation, rather than an announced institution with authority to enforce newsroom compliance.