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In most cases, the media has two voices. The panicking people who believe that AI will replace our labor and enslave us, and the people who market AI opportunities at every single opportunity (and it is often accompanied by huge profits). No matter how happy we are with making a choice, AI hastens the process of content creation and makes it more focused. Meanwhile, we have to deal with the choice of whether we can trust it or not.
Because AI is not just some video editor you can take and make reality glossier. It is shifting the paradigm of what is real and what isn’t. Plus, high tech and marketing is taking notice. Over the past two years, several major companies have moved AI-driven content creation from experimentation into production workflows.
That ‘little local’ digital media company, Buzzfeed? The one that grossed over $36 million in Q1, 2025 alone? It was among the earliest public AI adopters. The company integrated OpenAI models into its content management system (CMS) to generate quizzes, listicles, and personalized content formats at scale.
They didn’t wait for the 2025 craze, either. This initiative launched in 2023 and expanded through 2024. Buzzfeed framed it as an augmentation, as opposed to substitution of editorial workers. Besides, they are following up on the selected course as the Q1, 2025 report highlighted the expansion of high-margin revenue in such directions as programmatic advertising and affiliate commerce, not to mention, this time, AI development.
Legacy media is not lagging behind, either. In Feb. 2025, The New York Times rolled out internal AI tools to assist journalists with headline drafts, SEO framing, summaries, and research support. In fairness, these tools operate under ‘strict editorial constraints,’ at least that’s what we are told. These tools are explicitly barred from autonomous publishing. Understandably, since there is a reputation to maintain. The truth is somewhere between “they would be fools not to” and “We can never trust them again.”
The concept of trust is interesting. There is a reason (which I am sure psychologists can answer) that the written word is more believable than verbal one. Media and news outlets should further establish greater trust by extension by engaging in honest journalism, political neutrality and verification mechanisms. When you read something on Twitter (oh, pardon, X) wouldn’t you want a link from a reputable source? You should. And what constitutes a reputable source? Identifiable authorship, transparent methodology, primary sourcing, institutional accountability… All of the above.
Honestly speaking, every media may have shortcomings and it is necessary to check opposite perspectives. However, what was the case when AI entered the picture? Just like we have the desire to trust our eyes, we ought to be in a position to trust the publisher. To have faith in their editorial procedures and content creation morals. Can we, though?
In June, 2025, Chicago Sun-Times got into trouble after hitting ‘send’ on “Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer.” The newsletter contained a list of 15 books to read in the summer. Here’s the kicker. Of those 15 recommended books, 10 were false, in other words, invented. Sixteen long hours later, the ‘proud author’ confessed that they generated the list using an AI agent.
It took a full 24 hours before Chicago Public Media issued a correction, an apology, all the pageantry in place. But it left a nasty aftertaste.
What can be said about visual content then? It is typically much more believable to people, especially to an untrained eye.
As recently as January, 2026, the UK media regulator launched a formal investigation into X, owned by Elon Musk. Why? Concerns over the use of its Grok AI tool to generate sexually explicit images by digitally removing clothing from women and children.
AI-generated content increases in quality as we speak, paying for it in trust. We, as users, are obligated to check, recheck, and recheck again before spreading, sharing, quoting, or even gossiping about ANYTHING we see online, and that principle is here to stay. At least in the foreseeable future.
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