Physics World AI policy
February 2025
Background
AI is evolving fast and IOP Publishing Limited’s Media Group is aware of the opportunities it offers but also the dangers it poses. We will therefore keep abreast of developments in AI so we can:
- see if there are appropriate tools that could help with our own work and which fit with our responsible approach to AI-generated content in other areas of our business;
- report on AI-related initiatives of interest to the international physics community – all such content appears on its own Physics World AI topic page, with the best showcased on a Physics World AI collection page.
Content principles
Physics World is committed to publishing trusted, informative and scientifically accurate articles, podcasts and videos. We employ science journalists with a background in physics who are skilled at creating original, high-quality content of that kind.
Experimentation
Physics World will test the potential of AI tools in a sensible and controlled manner. We have already taken part in a wider IOP Publishing pilot project to evaluate how Microsoft CoPilot can do two specific tasks: a) summarize interviews and research papers; and b) create drafts of video scripts from existing Physics World features.
Guiding principles
Based on those experiments and internal discussions we have decided the following:
- we will not publish fresh content generated by AI – unless the purpose of the article is explicitly to show readers what certain AI tools can do;
- we may, however, use AI for “back-office” administrative functions to save time, notably transcribing and summarizing interviews that our journalists have recorded themselves, either in person or online;
- we may also use AI to create draft summaries of our own content, for example text for newsletters, standfirsts to articles, text for social-media posts, introductory paragraphs for back issues of our digital magazine, or scripts for videos based on existing features or podcasts;
- we won’t, however, publish such content without extensive further human oversight to check for scientific and factual accuracy and avoid “hallucinations” or plagiarism;
- we may also use AI tools to help with background research, for example to help understand particular technical terms, suggest topic ideas or identify new research trends.
Images
We routinely buy images from commercial photo libraries to illustrate articles. These images are often photographs of real-life settings but sometimes are graphics created by professional artists. We won’t knowingly buy or publish AI-generated images, unless the purpose of the image is explicitly to show readers what certain AI tools can do, where the sources are not clear.
Environmental factors
We are aware that AI tools require a lot of energy, with one AI query typically using the same energy as 100 online searches. We’ll therefore try to use AI tools efficiently and sparingly.
External contributors
Physics World uses many professional scientists and freelance science writers to contribute articles. We will ask them, through their copyright agreements, to explicitly state if they have used AI for any text or images sent to Physics World. If they have, they must explain how they have been used and we reserve the right to reject material generated in this way.
Advertising
Companies and organizations that advertise with Physics World agree to follow our advertising T&Cs, which will in future require that advertisers should state if they have used AI and for what purpose, especially with vendor-supplied content.
Other media outlets’ AI statements
We will keep an eye on what other media organizations are doing to ensure we remain aware of the wider industry approach to AI.