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Byline or bot? AI-generated ‘journalists’ start to appear in Canada

OTTAWA — Quebec correspondent "Geneviève Tremblay" — who has been reporting on multiple news stories a day lately — seemed to be experiencing a glitch.

AI-generated journalists are emerging in Canada, raising concerns about the integrity of news media. We News, a round-the-clock news portal, appears to have been using AI personas to repurpose content from legitimate news sources, including The Canadian Press. The site's "journalists" include fake personas like "Geneviève Tremblay" and "Daniel Robson," which have been identified as AI-generated by detection tools.

While We News openly labels its AI-generated content, the site has been delisted from Google's search results. The use of AI in news media is not limited to Canada, with U.S. news site Futurism also employing AI-generated content to boost page views. Experts warn that this trend could degrade trust in the news and exploit the work of real journalists.

While regulating these websites is challenging, old-fashioned reporting and transparency in AI-generated content are seen as potential solutions.

Written by urgent.news from CityNews's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.

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