Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In.
Journalism might not be the world’s single most important job, but it does have one unique distinction: 100% of journalists are interested in it. So it’s no surprise that the profession is the subject of an outsize percentage of articles about the myriad ways AI is changing our world.
I do admit, however, to be taken aback by how much of that coverage involves tales of journalists being embarrassed by entirely avoidable AI-fueled gaffes. On May 19, for example, Benjamin Mullin of The New York Times reported that The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality, a new book by Steven Rosenbaum, executive director of the Sustainable Media Center (and a Fast Company contributor), contained at least five quotes that appeared to have been manufactured, mangled, or misattributed by AI.
Rosenbaum, who told Mullin he took “full responsibility” for the errors, is hardly the only writer to let hallucinated sound bites slip into their work. Earlier in May, The Times itself issued a correction for an article that had attributed an imaginary quote to a Canadian politician. Still, given the subject of Rosenbaum’s book, its AI fabrications couldn’t have been more freighted with irony.
Each time I read about some journalistic AI mishap, I ask myself whether I’m at risk of being similarly ensnared. In this case, I’m confident the answer is no, for the simple reason that I never insert anything from a chatbot’s response directly into a story draft. Had a chatbot offered up a punchy quote from reporter/podcaster Kara Swisher—as one apparently did for Rosenbaum—I wouldn’t have assumed it was real unless I could trace it back to its source. That’s what I might quote.
If every journalist resisted the temptation to cut and paste algorithmically generated text, far fewer of them would have AI blow up in their faces, Wile E. Coyote-style. But I don’t expect the self-owns to dwindle anytime soon. Indeed, they may proliferate as more writers succumb to AI’s siren call.
Writers caught in old-school literary transgressions such as plagiarism have often deflected blame onto their tools (such as cryptic handwritten notes) or other people (say, overburdened research assistants). Blaming a seemingly superhuman technological factotum may be even more tempting. Though Rosenbaum admitted culpability for his book’s errors, he also told The Atlantic’s Will Oremus that he felt “seduced and betrayed” by AI.
As well as painfully underlining what can happen when someone gets overconfident about the competence of LLMs, the spate of faulty journalism has convinced me that transparency is in order. Media creators and consumers alike might be better off if AI’s role in reporting and writing were more clearly spelled out. With that in mind, here’s how I’m using the technology—and, crucially, not using it.
For better or worse, my wordsmithing is my own, except for the welcome quality control it receives from my Fast Company editorial colleagues. To me, thinking about something and writing about it are pretty much the same act; I wouldn’t know how to turn part of the job over to an algorithm. Even using the technology to brainstorm headlines—which I’ve done on rare occasion—feels like more work than it’s worth.
I do cheerfully admit to calling on AI in a variety of ways as I turn raw research into polished prose. In the past, I used Rev to transcribe interviews, Google’s NotebookLM to summarize them, and Grammarly for proofreading assistance. More recently, I’ve replaced them with similar features I built into the bespoke word processor I vibe-coded just for my own use. They’re valuable, but any impact on the finished product is ultimately modest.
I also use chatbots, especially Gemini, every day. My goal is not to get answers from a bot (which I wouldn’t fold into my work under any circumstances) but to point my way toward original, human-written sources, often on arcane topics. The bot is the beginning of the journey, not its destination.
So far, I’ve found that AI’s greatest gift to my reporting and writing hasn’t involved doing any of it for me. Instead, it’s Anthropic’s Claude Code, which I use to make software that streamlines all the work that surrounds my real work. Along with my word processor, I’ve built myself a note-taker, an email client, a Bluesky-Mastodon-Threads crossposter, and an RSS reader. They’re exactly the apps I always wanted. And every minute they save me is more time I can invest in conducting interviews and other research, sussing out what they tell me, and pounding out copy.
I’m not arguing that my approach is the only acceptable one. Alex Heath, founder of the Sources newsletter, told Maxwell Zeff of Wired that he focuses on snagging scoops and leans heavily on AI for the writing aspect of his work. I appreciate the disclosure, and—more importantly—am impressed by the results. May the day come when everyone in this business figures out how to use the technology in ways that will never leave them feeling sheepish, or worse.
You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on fastcompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
More top tech stories from Fast Company
SpaceX’s $1.75 trillion IPO pitch relies on a lot of AI faith
The rocket launching company says it’ll become a major player in enterprise AI in the future. Read More →
Microsoft’s AI Copilot is getting a human-focused streamlining
The company is aiming to make the software easier to use for a growing number of workplace and personal tasks. Read More →
Why are big AI companies embedding engineers with customers, and what does that mean?
If intelligence were a true utility, you wouldn’t need to send people to every customer to make the faucet work. Read More →
Oura shrunk its new ring by 40% and made it look a lot more like jewelry
Customers wanted a smart ring that looked like jewelry, not a gadget. Oura spent years rebuilding its hardware from the inside out to deliver one. Read More →
Eileen Collins was the first woman to command a space shuttle. A new documentary shows how she got there
‘Spacewoman’ chronicles how Collins persevered against odds to become the first female space shuttle pilot and commander. Read More →
The AI backlash is a danger for every brand now
Brands are particularly vulnerable to charges of inauthenticity, and AI is currently an inauthenticity force multiplier. Read More →