This week, journalists may have just crossed the AI Rubicon.
Both the Wall Street Journal and Wired published articles exposing how journalists and reporters admitted to using AI at varying levels, such as in writing or editing their articles.
Perhaps the most fascinating of all is Fortune’s Nick Lichtenberg, who churned out 600 articles since July 2025. He’s produced in 6 months more articles than any other Fortune writer. Plus, his articles are responsible for 20% of traffic to Fortune’s website. Wow!
In this challenging time for advertising revenues, these numbers alone should catch the attention of every news and media organization in the United States.
The Wired article details the use of AI by other writers–Casey Newton, Kevin Roose, Jasmine Sun, Taylor Lorenz, and Alex Heath. None use it to write their articles, but most, if not all, say they use AI to edit.
Lichtenberg’s apparent success will put pressure on media organizations to consider carefully if they should be using AI in greater ways.
Of course, the issue of AI raises profound questions about journalistic integrity–and what it even means to be a writer.
This same issue is being raised among scholars–and whether scholarship can be written, in part or in whole, by AI while the scholar publishes it as their own writing as long as they review it and/or tinker with it. Personally, I don’t think so, but I foresee a huge debate over it in the near future.