Press Gazette: “Round-up of the main cases where AI use in journalism has gone wrong. 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. Most recently, The New York Times published a quote attributed to Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre that was an AI-generated summary of his views, using words he had not said. The Mississippi Free Press admitted to being the latest news outlet caught out by publishing an AI column 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 purported freelance 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 by commissioning editors 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 used ChatGPT in 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: May 2026. Skip to:

• 2026 cases
• 2025 cases
• 2023-24 cases