AI is being widely used in journalism and can lead to reputation-killing scandals and mistakes if not monitored closely. Here Press Gazette rounds up some of the main examples of where AI has gone wrong.
The Mississippi Free Press has admitted to being the latest news outlet caught out by publishing anAIcolumn written by a fake author.
The non-profit outlet said the journalist did not seem suspicious until they submitted an invoice that did not match their name.
This was the same way that purportedfreelance journalist Margaux Blanchard was caught out by Wired last year.
There have been numerous similar cases of AI work mistakenly published by major news outlets in the past year as the technology grows more sophisticated. Sometimes the ‘journalists’ are caught out pre-publication.
There have also been examples of real writers getting caught out using AI in unsanctioned ways. Australian news website Crikey took down a series of articles because a writer had usedChatGPTin the editing process against its strict AI policy.
In this new page, Press Gazette will keep track of such incidents to help publishers to learn from these mistakes.Last updated: April 2026
If you spot anything that we have missed, please email [email protected].
Read more in-depth analysis of AI and journalism with a Press Gazette subscription.
The Mississippi Free Press has announced it discovered an opinion column published on 7 April was written using AI and “the ‘author’ was not who they claimed to be”.
Source: Press Gazette
