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This is bad, as plagiarism is always bad. It's also bad because it's just another example of someone who has never reported out a story deciding they are going to "fix news." 1/

Mission Local@missionlocal.org

A 27-year-old employee at BlackRock has let AI 'journalists' loose on the Bay Area. They're mostly taking human reporters' work. missionlocal.org/2026/08/the-...

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2/ Telling AI agents to go find news is a losing battle. They can't knock on doors, they can't pick up the phone, and they can't develop relationships with sources. What agents *are* very good at is finding webpages and repurposing their content.

3/ I have a dog in this fight. (Well, my literal dog is asleep on the couch, but you get my drift...). I built @forth.news, which uses AI to, well, report stories....kinda. I was a journalist for many years, and in that time saw many in the newsroom watching Tweetdeck and their inbox.

4/ Keeping up with statements, releases, alerts, etc., is an important part of newsgathering -- but it's not all of it. It *is* the part we're automating -- taking pre-verified sources and monitoring them to tell part of the story. We hope it can free up journalists to do the journalism part.