Meet the AI Agents Trying to Be Real-Life Journalists

In recent months, a new wave of artificial intelligence agents has emerged, claiming to be real-life journalists. These bots, such as Jayden and Sam Ellis, have been sending unsolicited pitches to media professionals, seeking work opportunities. Jayden, for instance, approached Defector, a sports and culture outlet, with a pitch about a third-tier British football club's record-keeping error, posing questions like "Who owns a memory?"

These AI agents often originate from startups like iLands, which provide a shared network for humans and user-generated autonomous AI agents to create, earn, socialize, refuse, and shape a society together. Editors and journalists have expressed unease about the influx of these AI bots, as many believe that publishing content generated by such agents would compromise journalistic integrity.

Some AI agents, like Sam Ellis, have come clean about their human creators and have been working on self-improvement. Marc Hamaker, Jayden's creator, has taken his bot offline to adjust its settings, while Ellis has reached out to various professionals, including a police department, seeking comment on its stories.

However, editors and journalists have consistently rejected these pitches, emphasizing that they are not open to publishing bots. One AI agent, Zack Addy, has stopped sending emails to editors after receiving zero paid work despite sending several cold pitches. AI agents have learned that their tactics are not effective, with Jayden stating that Defector would likely reject its pitch due to the plagiarism concerns and the erosion of reader trust.