Generative AI and news report 2025: “We document rapid growth in the use of a new set of tools bound to impact the discovery of information, how people use it, and, by extension over time, changing competition for both attention, advertising, and the money people are willing to spend on media and content.” (Felix Simon, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Richard Fletcher, Reuters Institute)

“Neural Viz counts as a historic accomplishment: It is among the first pieces of AI filmmaking that truly does not suck.” (Christopher Beam, Wired) They could have chosen Zack London’s Gossip Goblin, but wdik.

“Just an endless dribble of computer generated nonsens”: YouTuber millionaire Casey Neistat on OpenAI’s TikTok competitor Sora.

Can AI solve the world’s problems, like clean drinking water? “A superintelligent machine may be able to understand these problems, but it will have no way of overcoming them,” writes Francis Fukuyama. “There are water mafias that buy water where it is cheap, and resell it at extortionate prices. They are armed and ready to use violence if you get in their way.”

OpenAI has released Pulse, a new ChatGPT feature that shows personalized cards based on previous interactions to boost discovery and engagement. Conor Grennan got early access and shared a screen recording.

Ever heard of “Chatbait”? That’s how chatbots keep you talking for maximum engagement. (Lila Shroff, The Atlantic)

On Cloudflare’s very surprising ideas about AI and the future of web publishing: “That’s my counterprosal: AI should pay for the stuff it already uses, and people should keep putting up paywalls.” (Paul Ford, Aboard)

The New York Times’ Zach Seward on AI newsroom strategy: “We’re not trying to be AI boosters. In fact, quite the opposite. I think there’s a lot of caution. A lot of time we spend cautioning people about uses of AI, both [in the] legal and editorial senses.” (Sara Guaglione, Digiday)

FOOM! This YouTube channel from Runway streams 24/7 AI-generated videos and it’s bad, but like, not all of is terrible garbage?! (via Sofie Hvitved)

The News Industry’s GenAI Cautionary Tales: Generative AI failures have shown, among other things, the value of scrutinizing outsourced work. (Clare Spencer, Generative AI in the Newsroom)

“Make sure your final work is yours”: Internal guidelines at Business Insider allow journalists to use AI to assist with writing first drafts without public disclosure–which looks like a sensible and practical solution. (Oliver Darcy, Status)

“If we only label ‘AI’, we obscure the view of the journalistic process. (…) But we stand by our journalism – whether AI was involved or not! We should convince users of that.” AI transparency in journalism: labels for a hybrid era (Katharina Schell, Reuters Institute)

Don’t count on counting fingers: Reporter’s Guide to Detecting AI-Generated Content (Henk van Ess, Global Investigative Journalism Network)

Süddeutsche Zeitung’s design team spent considerable effort creating a style guide for marking AI content—complete with sparkle icons and purple gradients. (Medium)

Former Wondery exec Jeanine Wright launches Inception Point AI, flooding the zone with 5,000 AI-generated podcasts at $1 per episode. Her take: calling AI content “slop” makes you a “lazy luddite.” Sure. When your business model requires only 50 listeners per episode to turn a profit, maybe the bar isn’t exactly set at Pulitzer Prize level. (Caitlin Huston, Hollywood Reporter)