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Hauptverfasser: Russell, Jenna, Karpinska, Marzena, Akinode, Destiny, Thai, Katherine, Emi, Bradley, Spero, Max, Iyyer, Mohit
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18774
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author Russell, Jenna
Karpinska, Marzena
Akinode, Destiny
Thai, Katherine
Emi, Bradley
Spero, Max
Iyyer, Mohit
author_facet Russell, Jenna
Karpinska, Marzena
Akinode, Destiny
Thai, Katherine
Emi, Bradley
Spero, Max
Iyyer, Mohit
contents AI is rapidly transforming journalism, but the extent of its use in published newspaper articles remains unclear. We address this gap by auditing a large-scale dataset of 186K articles from online editions of 1.5K American newspapers published in the summer of 2025. Using Pangram, a state-of-the-art AI detector, we discover that approximately 9% of newly-published articles are either partially or fully AI-generated. This AI use is unevenly distributed, appearing more frequently in smaller, local outlets, in specific topics such as weather and technology, and within certain ownership groups. We also analyze 45K opinion pieces from Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, finding that they are 6.4 times more likely to contain AI-generated content than news articles from the same publications, with many AI-flagged op-eds authored by prominent public figures. Despite this prevalence, we find that AI use is rarely disclosed: a manual audit of 100 AI-flagged articles found only five disclosures of AI use. Overall, our audit highlights the immediate need for greater transparency and updated editorial standards regarding the use of AI in journalism to maintain public trust.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18774
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AI use in American newspapers is widespread, uneven, and rarely disclosed
Russell, Jenna
Karpinska, Marzena
Akinode, Destiny
Thai, Katherine
Emi, Bradley
Spero, Max
Iyyer, Mohit
Computation and Language
AI is rapidly transforming journalism, but the extent of its use in published newspaper articles remains unclear. We address this gap by auditing a large-scale dataset of 186K articles from online editions of 1.5K American newspapers published in the summer of 2025. Using Pangram, a state-of-the-art AI detector, we discover that approximately 9% of newly-published articles are either partially or fully AI-generated. This AI use is unevenly distributed, appearing more frequently in smaller, local outlets, in specific topics such as weather and technology, and within certain ownership groups. We also analyze 45K opinion pieces from Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, finding that they are 6.4 times more likely to contain AI-generated content than news articles from the same publications, with many AI-flagged op-eds authored by prominent public figures. Despite this prevalence, we find that AI use is rarely disclosed: a manual audit of 100 AI-flagged articles found only five disclosures of AI use. Overall, our audit highlights the immediate need for greater transparency and updated editorial standards regarding the use of AI in journalism to maintain public trust.
title AI use in American newspapers is widespread, uneven, and rarely disclosed
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18774