--- title: "The Washington Post Is Secretly Planning to Start Publishing Articles Created Using AI" description: "The Washington Post has quietly been building an AI tool that takes much of the work out of writing as it attempts to recoup readership." date: "2025-06-04" modified: "2025-06-04" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/washington-post-ai-articles" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai journalism" - "ai writing" - "jeff bezos" - "washington post" --- # The Washington Post Is Secretly Planning to Start Publishing Articles Created Using AI ![The Washington Post has quietly been building an AI tool that takes much of the work out of writing as it attempts to recoup readership.]() *\Image: Kevin Carter / Getty / Futurism\* As the news media continues its [often-disastrous pivot]() towards generative artificial intelligence, the most prominent publication yet has jumped on board: the *Washington Post*, it turns out, has quietly been building an AI tool designed to let underqualified writers publish content in its storied pages. According to multiple sources familiar with the plan who [spoke to the *New York Times*](), since April the newspaper has been secretly building a program known as "Ripple" that appears to be part syndication, part talent network akin to [contributor schemes at *HuffPost*]() and [*Forbes*]()*.* The biggest difference from those prior contributor networks and this one, though, is the way the sausage will be made. Along with partnerships with established writers, the new program will employ an "AI writing coach" called "Ember" designed to guide "nonprofessionals" through the article-writing process. That tool will, per early prototypes described to the *NYT*, hand-hold aspiring columnists through every aspect of the writing process from start to finish. Its sidebar will instruct writers to devise an "early thesis," list out "supporting points," and provide a "memorable ending" — all while a live AI chatbot weighs in and a "story strength" tracker evaluates their progress. At the end of it all, a human editor is said to review the columns before they go to publication — though in practice, similar promises have often ended in disaster, like at *CNET*, which promised that editors were reviewing the [scores of AI-generated articles]() it ran before it turned out they were [riddled with errors]() and [plagiarism](). Though the outputs from *WaPo*'s program wouldn't be *entirely* generated by AI, it sounds like everything but. And in practice, as we've seen time and again, the temptation with AI is to use it not as a thoughtful creative partner but as a speedrunning tool to churn out large quantities of low-quality material, or to cook up something that sounds confident but is shaky on the undergirding facts and logic. In other words, it sounds like the program could be poised to take everything that's currently broken and controversial about newspaper opinion sections and amplify it using generative AI. *WaPo* declined to provide comment for the *NYT*'s exposé. It's worth noting that the *NYT* has been putting significant resources of its own into exploring how AI can be responsibly used in journalism — but while it's [using certain machine learning tools]() for tasks like finding patterns in large datasets, it's pledged not to use generative AI to write any articles. The revelation also comes during a period of broader crisis at *WaPo*, with significant layoffs coming as its owner Jeff Bezos has increasingly exerted control over the [content and ideological leaning]() of the paper's journalism. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, [eat your heart out](). **More on AI writing**: [*Business Insider Did Something So Stupid With AI That We’re Reeling*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()