Transparency is a core principle of the PBS Editorial Standards & Practices.  This is “the principle that content should be produced in a way that allows the audience to evaluate the credibility of the work and determine for themselves whether it is trustworthy.”  Transparency requires PBS to empower the audience with all of the information necessary to understand and evaluate the program.

PBS strives to fulfill this mission through robust and customized advisories at the beginning of programs with sensitive content, thoughtfully limited use of anonymous sources, clear labeling of re-creations, and a commitment to transparent crediting of producers and funders – but this work is more important than ever in the era of generative artificial intelligence tools.

The PBS Editorial Standards also set forth a commitment to experimentation.  Given that PBS has the benefit of being free from the constraints of commercial media, it has the freedom to experiment and to seek out content that is unique in format, technique, and substance.  The limited use of generative AI software in a handful of PBS programs has been driven by creative professionals exploring all of the ways to tell the story they are pursuing and to serve the long-standing educational public service mission.

In Declarations: Black Americans and The Revolutionary War, producers Stacey Holman and Maya Tepler trace the stories of enslaved and freed Black Americans who fought to define democracy and their liberty through the Revolutionary War.

When watching Declarations, viewers will see and hear an explanation at the top of the program that: “The following program includes visuals generated with the help of AI tools to supplement historical depictions.  These are based on the work of a fine artist and clearly distinguished by a rough, black frame.  To learn more, visit pbs.org/declarations.”  And at several points throughout the film, viewers are reminded through text on screen that they can: “Learn how this film used AI tools at pbs.org/declarations.”

In the essay by Holman and Tepler at that site, they explain: “Portrayals of Black-centered narratives in early American art are few and far between.  And the ones that do exist were faceless in fields, or caricatured – displayed as subservient property.  In ​‘Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War’ we knew we wanted to give our historical subjects agency on visual terms, as never seen before.  In doing so, we aim to be a part of a long lineage of artists reclaiming and reshaping Black narratives.”

They go on to explain (with a step-by-step example) how the program also implemented the accuracy core principle of the PBS Editorial Standards: “This is not a quick fix. Every rendering goes through hundreds of iterations, and then nearly a dozen rounds of notes amongst the creative team and our expert historical advisors.”

The long-running PBS documentary series Independent Lens produced by ITVS has similarly put into practice this commitment to ensuring that all uses of generative AI tools are thoughtful and intentional, and that all members of the audience are fully aware of any such uses.

The Independent Lens films Assembly, by Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons, and Ghost in the Machine, by Valerie Veatch, are each stellar examples.

In Assembly, vogue, AI, and identity collide as Newsome creates an exhibition honoring Black and queer culture.  During the film, viewers are advised: “To learn more about the use of AI in this film, visit pbs.org/assembly.”  At that site, Newsome explains in detail how generative AI tools were used to create Being, the Digital Griot, as a “fully realized subject” and “an archive, performer, interlocutor, and healer” whose “digital presence is rooted in the African Diaspora” and which emerged from a desire “to imagine a machine intelligence grounded in liberatory thought and cultural specificity.” 

Newsome goes on to explain that this use of generative AI is a “way of asking what intelligence looks like when it is shaped by histories and epistemologies that have so often been marginalized, erased, or misread. And what happens when technology is invited into the realm of ritual, care, performance, and critique.”

While some PBS programs use generative AI software to create, others use it to critique.  Ghost in the Machine reveals AI’s troubled history and seeks to unravel AI hype, and as Veatch explains in the companion essay, “in a creative flourish drawing from a long tradition in experimental video, I wanted to use the AI-generated slop we see in the film as a texture.”  Moreover, the “AI labeled footage exists as a globby layer that will age strangely and be a haunting reminder of how and when these slop images become inserted into our narratives.”  As pioneering video artist Nam June Paik said, “I use technology in order to hate it properly.”

This film itself opens with an explanatory advisory: “The following film includes an ‘AI’ label on visuals produced for this film with a video generation model in furtherance of critique.  The film includes a ‘NOT AI’ label on all other footage and all actual social media posts, even when those posts were themselves made by others using generative software.  Learn more about the film's use of software and these labels at pbs.org/ghost.”  And this commitment to transparency and in-depth explanation shows up in repeated text on-screen at various points throughout: “Learn how this program uses and labels AI content at pbs.org/ghost.”

Most recently, two new PBS programs each use generative AI tools in ways that demonstrate a robust commitment to the principles of accuracy, inclusiveness, and transparency – Secrets of the Dead: Africa’s Golden City and NOVA: Evolution.

In Africa’s Golden City, viewers will see and hear at the outset: “This program contains selected drama reconstruction imagery created with the assistance of generative AI, developed under editorial supervision and informed by archaeological and historical research. To learn more, visit pbs.org/greatzimbabwe.”  And as usual, viewers are reminded at several points throughout: “Learn more about how this program used AI tools at pbs.org/greatzimbabwe.”  In the article at that site, you can read in detail about the filmmakers’ thought process behind leveraging generative AI tools to bring the story of Great Zimbabwe to life in a carefully considered way with detailed input from historical experts.

Stephanie Carter, Executive Producer of Secrets of the Dead, shared that “using generative AI in Africa’s Golden City gave the filmmakers a cost-effective means of visualizing moments in history that occurred before cameras were invented. At Secrets of the Dead, we require full transparency and repeated disclosure of any generative material as an assurance that viewers will never, even for a moment, be left questioning whether or not what they see is real.”

In an entirely different genre of program, NOVA’s Evolution series turned to generative AI software to tackle a particular challenge: how best to depict gaps in the fossil record in an accurate and educational way.  The NOVA team explains it best in their online companion piece that is referenced at the beginning of the program:

"Scientists often have fossil evidence of an ancestral species and its descendants, but not every intermediate form that existed between them. To aid visualizing those transitions, our graphics team used AI tools to generate stills of multiple possible intermediary forms based on fossil evidence at the beginning and end points.  Those stills were fed into the animation to create a timelapse effect.

Importantly, these graphics are not intended to show a definitive evolutionary pathway. In fact, you'll notice that the final sequence does not depict a single smooth transformation. Evolution rarely follows a straight line. Instead, the visualization presents many possible routes between two known points, reflecting both the evidence we have and the uncertainty that remains.

Throughout the process, the team worked closely with dozens of paleontologists and evolutionary experts to ensure all the visual effects sequences were rigorously accurate. The result for the AI-assisted sequences are visualizations that help audiences imagine possibilities where evidence is incomplete, while remaining grounded in the best available research."

Audiences are directed to this detailed online companion piece through a card at the beginning of the program: “In the following program, animators used AI tools to create elements of certain graphics with expert review.  Learn more at pbs.org/evolutionai” and with on-screen reminders during the program: “Learn how this film used AI tools at pbs.org/evolutionai.”

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In each of these five programs, the creative professionals had a vision for how to inform and inspire the public and found that novel uses of generative AI tools would best serve that mission.  PBS worked with those directors, writers, and producers to ensure that each use was fully transparent so that every member of the audience could evaluate the content for themselves.  From publishing some of the first ever industry guidance on applying standards to generative AI in 2023, to developing case studies on its use, and updating the long-standing PBS Editorial Standards in 2025 to thread the application to generative AI throughout, PBS is committed to empowering content producers to experiment thoughtfully and empowering the audience to always understand what they are seeing.

Contact Standards & Practices at standards@pbs.org