Generative AI (GenAI) technologies present major epistemological and ethical challenges for fact-checking, particularly due to limitations in accuracy, transparency, and contextual reasoning. Considering that trust is generally viewed as a prerequisite for AI use, this exploratory study examines how European fact-checkers use and evaluate GenAI tools in their professional practice. Based on an adapted version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM-J) as a heuristic lens, the study draws on an exploratory survey of 47 fact-checkers from 24 European countries. The findings suggest that GenAI tools are primarily used for secondary, efficiency-oriented tasks rather than for core verification activities, and that users exhibit limited trust in their outputs. Practical considerations, such as perceived productivity gains, coexist with ethical concerns rather than displacing them. This study provides descriptive insights into professional perceptions and practices in a high-stakes journalistic context and highlights the guiding value of a TAM-based framework for structuring exploratory analysis of GenAI use in fact-checking.
Dierickx et al. (2026) studied this question.