Oh Lord, AI Reporters Are Actually Breaking Big News
Last week, an AI newsroom beat mainstream journalists—including WIRED—to a story about OpenAI and hacking. It’s just the beginning.
RuntimeWire, an AI-operated newsroom founded in May, has published nearly 2,000 stories by feeding OpenAI executive transcripts to its synthetic agents. The Austin-based operation, led by entrepreneur Ryan Merket, charges just $100 a day to run, even while Merket manages the site from remote locations like camping trips. While the AI-generated content often contains typos and a lack of depth, it attracts readership comparable to midsize tech websites.
Merket aims to differentiate his operation by publishing entirely automated stories and original investigations requiring higher oversight. However, he acknowledges the risks involved in trusting machines to determine what is true, newsworthy, and legally safe. Dakota Carrasco, another AI-focused reporter, runs a similar operation called The Dissent, which also faces skepticism from media professionals who value human oversight in their reporting.
Written by urgent.news from Wired Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
