the record
reality.
every outlet that quietly used the technology while its lawyers called it theft.
I use AI, and I say so.
Can you guess who else does?
the one that takes the cake
The New York Times
Filed Case No. 1:23-CV-11195 against OpenAI in December 2023 — calling AI training on their content an existential threat to journalism. By February 2025, the Times was authorizing its own reporters to use AI tools internally. Their lawyers argued in federal court that the technology was theft. Their editors were rolling out workflows built on the same technology. Both things are true at the same time. Only one of them was disclosed.
the index
55 outlets on file
Associated Press
Robots writing earnings reports since 2014
source →
Associated Press
Five AI tools deployed to local newsrooms
source →
Bloomberg
Cyborg automated earnings — Bloomberg Automation byline
source →
Reuters
Lynx Insight, News Tracer, financial automation
source →
Agence France-Presse
Mistral AI partnership signed January 2025
source →
Washington Post
Heliograf — Olympics, elections, high school football
source →
Washington Post
Secretly planning AI articles, 2023
source →
Washington Post
AI-powered personalized podcast — accuracy questions
source →
New York Times
All-in on internal AI tools while its lawyers litigate them
source →
New York Times
Internal AI rollout — Semafor investigation
source →
Los Angeles Times
Quakebot writing earthquake stories since 2014
source →
Los Angeles Times
AI-generated counterpoints on opinion pieces — errors found immediately
source →
Wall Street Journal
Narrativa AI for news automation; News Corp / OpenAI content deal
source →
Wall Street Journal
Opinion editor Paul Gigot calls AI “a fact of modern life” — contributors may use it with no disclosure to readers
source →
Wall Street Journal
Stanley Druckenmiller op-ed written with AI, undisclosed until he confirmed it: “I write everything using AI now”
source →
USA Today / Gannett
LedeAI high school sports debacle — AI articles botched, paused
source →
Gannett
AI contract language unsettling local unions
source →
CNET
77 AI-written articles published secretly, 41+ corrections, plagiarism
source →
CNET
Plagiarism findings after AI content was exposed
source →
Bankrate / CreditCards.com
Red Ventures AI articles — errors found, paused, restarted anyway
source →
Red Ventures
Internally knew AI had errors and deployed at CNET anyway
source →
BuzzFeed
AI quizzes, then full AI-written travel articles quietly published
source →
G/O Media / Gizmodo
AI articles with errors including ethnic slur — management defended it
source →
Business Insider
AI byline controversy — journalists pushed back
source →
Business Insider
Tracking employees' ChatGPT usage as part of AI push
source →
Newsweek
AI fixture in newsroom — custom video tool, disclosure policy
source →
Axios
Loosened prohibition on AI-written stories, 2025
source →
Sports Illustrated
AI-generated articles under fake AI-generated author profiles
source →
Sports Illustrated
NPR investigation into fake AI writers
source →
ESPN
AI-generated game recaps under 'ESPN Generative AI Services' byline
source →
Forbes
Bertie AI writes first drafts for contributors since 2018
source →
Financial Times
Ask FT AI tool; FT Playground; OpenAI partnership
source →
Fortune
Warming to AI for graphics, podcast automation
source →
Men's Journal
First AI-written article had 18 medical errors in 650 words
source →
Condé Nast
OpenAI deal — Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker, Wired, Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit
source →
Hearst
OpenAI deal — Cosmopolitan, Esquire, San Francisco Chronicle, 40+ properties
source →
Dotdash Meredith
OpenAI deal — People, Better Homes & Gardens, Food & Wine, Investopedia
source →
McClatchy
AI 'content scaling agent' — union grievances at Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, Kansas City Star
source →
Reach PLC / Daily Mirror / Daily Express
Guten AI tool — 1.8 billion page views assisted
source →
National World / JPI Media
Weekly papers to be produced entirely using AI
source →
Newsquest
36 AI-assisted reporters embedded in UK regional newsrooms
source →
Axel Springer / Politico
AI Live Summaries with factual errors at 2024 DNC — published without human editing
source →
Axel Springer / Politico
Editors testified AI tools were 'outside newsroom' editorial standards
source →
Axel Springer
First major European publisher to sign with OpenAI
source →
Microsoft / MSN
Fired 77 human editors in 2020, replaced with AI — multiple factual disasters followed
source →
Channel 1
First US nationally syndicated outlet with AI-generated anchors
source →
Sinclair Broadcast Group
AI-translated TV newscasts in real time
source →
BBC
Headline helper, Style Assist, AI summaries pilot — mandatory AI training
source →
NRK (Norway)
AI-generated summaries via OpenAI to reach younger audiences
source →
Xinhua / China State Media
World's first AI news anchor debuted November 2018
source →
Der Spiegel
AI fact-checking tool — extracts claims, flags for human review
source →
Aftonbladet / Schibsted
AI hub, automated front page curation
source →
Bonnier News
AI-generated newsletter summaries
source →
University of Maryland Study
9% of American newspaper articles at least partly AI-generated — only 5 of 100 disclosed it
source →
Press Gazette
Coverage of UMD study — opinion at NYT, WaPo, WSJ 6.4× more likely to be AI-generated
source →
who put it in your pocket
Who built them. Who trained them. Who put them in your pocket.
This site is built with tools made by the companies it covers. There is no clean-hands version of it — you cannot map the cord without holding the thing that runs through it. The list is not short:
- AppleCore ML · Apple Intelligence · Siri · on-device inference
- GoogleGemini · DeepMind · TensorFlow · Search · Maps · Gmail
- MetaLLaMA · PyTorch · Instagram ranking · Facebook feed
- AmazonAlexa · AWS Bedrock · recommendation engine · Kindle
- MicrosoftCopilot · Azure AI · GitHub · OpenAI partnership
- OpenAIGPT · ChatGPT · DALL·E · Codex · the one everyone knows
- AnthropicClaude — one of the tools used to build this page
- NVIDIAthe GPU that runs all of the above. every single one.
- Qualcommon-device AI chips — in your phone, running right now
- SamsungGalaxy AI · Bixby · chips in half the world's devices
- AdobeFirefly · Photoshop AI · Premiere · every creative tool
- Spotifyevery song recommendation. every playlist. all of it.
- Netflixevery title you see. the thumbnail they chose for you.
- SalesforceEinstein AI · the CRM every business you love uses
- GoDaddyAI website builder. your neighbor used it last Tuesday.
- Shopifyevery template. every product description. AI wrote it.
- Wix / Squarespacethe websites you visit and don't question
- YouRLHF. your clicks. your corrections. you trained it too.
Every company on that list built it, trained it, and shipped it to a device in your pocket — and you use it every day without asking.
itethered — the cord between humans and machines.