The Rise of AI-Generated News: A Double Whammy for Media Outlets
The Problem of AI-Generated News
Bad actors have been attempting to piggyback off successful media outlets by republishing their work without permission for many years. However, with the rise of AI tools, this scheme has proliferated at an alarming rate. "This kind of low-quality content isn’t really new," says Saporta. "But it’s so much easier to replicate and scale with these current tools."
The Increase in AI Slop Websites
The number of AI-generated news websites has sharply increased year over year since generative AI tools exploded in popularity in 2023. Last February, media watchdog company NewsGuard had identified 725 "news and information sites" filled with AI content. By January 2025, it had identified at least 1,150 of these sites.
The Confusion and Chaos Caused by AI-Generated News
To make matters more confusing for readers, a number of mainstream media sites have experimented with publishing AI-generated news articles. In other cases, domain-name hustlers have purchased the URLs of media properties that have fallen on hard times and resurrected them as AI content mills, sometimes replacing their previously sound journalism with robotic pablum.
Real-World Consequences
Some of these sites are already enkindling real-world confusion; in October, an SEO content mill posted an AI-generated announcement for a Halloween parade in Dublin, Ireland. Even though there was no such event planned, throngs of revelers showed up expecting festivities.
The Phishing and Scams
Copyleaks’ Paul described the way that some of these websites glommed onto the brand identity of real outlets to peddle junk as "sort of like phishing." In some cases, these sites appear to be making actual phishing efforts. One of the sites within the ring DoubleVerify identified was designed to imitate a Fox news outlet based in Nigeria. It greets would-be readers with a series of suspicious pop-up ads for software.
The Advertising Revenue
Many of these websites feature an abundance of banners administered by popular programmatic ad servers like Criteo and Sharethrough. DoubleVerify’s report suggests that the Synthetic Echo operators chose sports as one of the lead content categories specifically because it’s considered more brand-safe than hard news. Programmatic ads from a number of prominent companies, including tech stalwarts like Asana and Oracle, ecommerce bigwig Net-A-Porter, makeup giant Sephora, and resort chain Kalahari Resorts, appeared while WIRED was monitoring these websites.
Conclusion
The rise of AI-generated news is a double whammy for media outlets. It pollutes the information ecosystem with junk and stolen writing, and it siphons off programmatic advertising revenue from legitimate content producers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the purpose of AI-generated news?
A: The purpose of AI-generated news is to create content quickly and cheaply, often for the purpose of generating revenue through advertising.
Q: How did AI-generated news become so prevalent?
A: AI-generated news became prevalent due to the rise of generative AI tools, which allowed for the creation of large quantities of low-quality content.
Q: What are the consequences of AI-generated news?
A: The consequences of AI-generated news include the proliferation of junk content, the siphoning off of programmatic advertising revenue from legitimate content producers, and the potential for real-world confusion and chaos.
Q: How can readers detect AI-generated news?
A: Readers can detect AI-generated news by looking for inconsistencies in language, poor grammar, and a lack of depth or nuance in the content.
