--- title: "Gannett Promised to Be Super Responsible With AI Before Completely Bungling It" description: "Gannett promised that no AI content would be published to its vast network without direct human oversight. This isn't how things played out." date: "2023-09-07" modified: "2023-09-07" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/gannett-promised-responsible-ai-bungling" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "ai journalism" - "ai-generated content" - "Media" --- # Gannett Promised to Be Super Responsible With AI Before Completely Bungling It ![Gannett promised that no AI content would be published to its vast network without direct human oversight. This isn't how things played out.]() *AUSTIN, TEXAS - JUNE 05: Journalists protest outside the offices of the Austin American Statesman newspaper on June 05, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Staff journalists at the paper joined hundreds of staffers across the country in a nationwide walkout, protesting against Gannett newspaper's job cuts, budget cuts and the company's leadership, headed by CEO Mike Reed. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) \Image: Brandon Bell via Getty Images\* Just a few short months ago, in June, executives at the publishing giant Gannett — which owns *USA Today*, in addition to hundreds of local newspapers — swore that they would use AI safely and responsibly. "The desire to go fast was a mistake for some of the other news services," Renn Turiano, senior vice president and head of product at Gannett, [told *Reuters*]() at the time. "We're not making that mistake." Turino, per *Reuters*, further argued that automation would mostly just streamline workflows and for its human journalists, freeing up their time and alleviating busy work (a [common refrain]() among the AI positive, in the media industry and [beyond]().) Perhaps most notably, Turino reportedly promised that humans would always be included in the publisher's AI processes, and that no AI-generated content would be published "automatically, without oversight," according to the June report. It's a reasonable-enough attitude toward the use of AI, and if Gannett had actually followed through with it, it may well have set a strong example for the rest of the industry. Gannett's optimistic promises, however, couldn't be more broken. To recap: last week, it was discovered that the news behemoth had been [quietly publishing AI-generated high school sports articles]() in multiple of its local papers as well as *USA Today*. And this content, generated by a company called Lede AI, was terrible. Each AI-spun blurb was awkward and repetitive, with no mention of details like player names — and occasionally even [displaying outright formatting gore](). Most importantly, as Gannett's [rush to retroactively edit the synthetic snippets]() makes all the clearer, there appears to have been little to no human involvement in the drafting or publishing of the AI-generated material. In other words, the reality of Gannett's AI efforts couldn't be further from the responsible, human-intensive AI vision that the publisher laid out to *Reuters* in June — and even cemented in its AI ethics policy, which has similarly been turned upside-down by Gannett's ill-informed choice to auto-publish synthetic content to its public websites. To add an extra sprinkle of irony, an expert contributing to the June report even expressed his concerns about exactly what ended up happening at Gannett and *USA Today*. "Where I am right now," that expert, Northwestern University associate professor of Communications and Computer Science Nicholas Diakopoulos, told *Reuters* at the time, "is I wouldn't recommend these models for any journalistic use case where you're publishing automatically to a public channel." And as the publisher doesn't appear to be planning to pull the AI plug? Better luck to them next time — though maybe they should abstain from making any promises they can't keep. **More on Gannett AI:** [*Gannett Sports Writer on Botched AI-Generated Sports Articles: "Embarrassing"*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()