AI could soon handle the writing portion of journalism, with reporters just entering quotes and notes into large language models to generate stories, suggested Aimee Rinehart
An internal debate at The Associated Press has exposed a deep rift between newsroom leadership and journalists over the use of AI for writing, according to Semafor.
Aimee Rinehart, AP’s Senior Product Manager for AI, sparked controversy by characterizing resistance to the technology as “futile.”
In leaked Slack messages, Rinehart suggested that AI could soon handle the writing portion of journalism, with reporters just entering quotes and notes into large language models to generate stories.
These comments drew sharp rebukes from AP staff, who described the sentiment as “insulting” and argued that human writing is the lifeblood of journalism, not AI-written slop.
Despite such debates, news publications around the country are adopting AI into their work. Cleveland’s largest newspaper, The Plain Dealer, introduced bylines drafted by AI and reviewed by human staff.
Major outlets like Axel Springer are aggressively pushing for AI integration to ensure the survival of news sites that have taken a major hit in website traffic due to AI bots.
While newsrooms have embraced AI tools for transcription and translation, the move toward automating writing remains a fierce point of contention.