AI supercharges the challenges of discerning truth from fiction

In 2026, the biggest challenge for news consumers won’t be finding information — it will be figuring out what to trust and how to make sense of a deluge of competing narratives and facts. We at Pew Research Center have seen in our work that many Americans say they often encounter inaccurate news online and struggle to know what’s true or not. This uncertainty may only grow alongside three powerful trends: the rise of generative AI as a news provider, the growing influence of social media influencers, and continued political polarization.

How will people navigate news and information when both the medium and the messenger are changing?

AI as the new front door to news

People already have seemingly infinite information sources to choose from, but another big one is just starting to take shape. This year, we found that just 2% of U.S. adults said they often get news from AI chatbots. As popular digital information sources such as social media and search engines continue to build generative AI into their products, it may become the default interface for many people to encounter information by the end of 2026.

This pathway affords convenience reminiscent of the early days of social media. But it lacks transparency and clear attribution, and it continues to produce hallucinations and false information. Americans are skeptical of AI both in general and in how it will impact the news environment. How can accuracy be ensured when the process is invisible?

Influencers as news anchors

The line between journalists and other kinds of content creators will only continue to blur. Our recent Pew-Knight Initiative data shows that about 1 in 5 U.S. adults (21%) regularly get news from news influencers. Among adults under 30, that jumps to 38%. For many younger audiences, the “news anchor” is now a TikTok personality, a YouTube commentator, or a podcaster with a loyal following.

This trend reflects a deeper cultural shift: Audiences value authenticity and personality as institutional credibility is eroding. Trust in national news organizations has declined across all age groups, but the views of young adults are most striking. Today, Americans ages 18-29 are about as likely to trust information from national news organizations (51%) as they are to trust information from social media sites (50%). For older Americans, national news still holds a clear trust advantage — but for younger audiences, the playing field has leveled. And these younger audiences represent the future of news consumption. Their preferences will shape how journalism is produced, distributed, and monetized in the years ahead.

The trust dilemma in a polarizing world

All of these trends are happening in a highly polarized political environment — including a polarized media. As people are faced with the burden of verifying the news they encounter, they also must overcome their own biases, and many acknowledge that Republican and Democratic voters cannot agree on basic facts. This isn’t just a technical challenge; it’s a civic one.

For legacy media, this is also an opportunity. These questions point to a central tension for 2026: As trust shifts from institutions to individuals, will journalism adapt — or will it be redefined, either by powerful computers or humans who never called themselves journalists in the first place?

The coming year won’t just test the resilience of traditional journalism. It will test whether society can maintain a shared sense of reality in an information ecosystem optimized for speed, personalization, and engagement.