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AI in United States's news media

371 verified, source-linked AI implementations across 178 news organizations, 2014–2026. United States ranks 1st worldwide by documented cases.
North America2014–2026
Cases
371
Organizations
178
Active since
2014
Controversies
65
Compared with the global pattern, Content Licensing & Partnerships accounts for 14% of cases here against 5% worldwide; and Research & Investigation accounts for 17% of cases here against 10% worldwide.

What AI is used for — and how that differs

United Statesworldwide sharepp = percentage-point difference
Research & Investigation62+7pp
Content Production & Automation60+2pp
Content Licensing & Partnerships53+9pp
Editorial Workflow & Writing Assistance37-7pp
Audience Experience & Personalisation30+1pp
Verification & Fact-Checking21-2pp
Audience Engagement & Community15+2pp
Talent Development & Upskilling13-4pp
Litigation & IP Rights13+3pp

How far adoption has gone

1 – Access13
2 – Adoption196
3 – Proficiency115
4 – Ways of Working47
5 – Reorganizing0

Who is adopting

Funding: Own budget (247), Tech company (other) (45), Media dev org (32), Tech company (OpenAI) (27)

Notable cases

2026McClatchy

Content Scaling Agent (CSA) — AI-powered tool using Anthropic's Claude to repackage news articles at varying lengths and formats; journalists import URLs and select up to five target audiences; CSA generates: 200–1,500-word summaries optimised for newsletters and social media, video scripts for short-form content, 400–800-word 'Discover explainer' versions optimised for Google Search, and audience- and…

Content Production & Automation3 – Proficiency⚑ controversy
Content Scaling Agent (CSA; McClatchy in-house; Anthropic Claude API + Claude Code + AI agSource →

2018Forbes

Bertie — Forbes' in-house AI publishing platform and CMS, named after founder B.C. Forbes and launched with the July 2018 site relaunch. Forbes described it as giving storytellers "a bionic suit": real-time trending topics to cover, recommendations for making headlines more compelling, and suggestions for relevant imagery. It suggests article topics from trending data and reader interests, recommends SEO- and…

Editorial Workflow & Writing Assistance3 – Proficiency
Bertie — proprietary AI CMS / natural-language publishing assistantSource →

2026Prism News

'Pink slime' AI newsroom network: Prism runs more than 200 AI-generated local-news and hobby sites across the US (including Grand Traverse and Iron County, Michigan), publishing two to six 'local' stories a day under the bylines of ~40 journalists — none of whom are human. The AI copies and rewrites other outlets' reporting (subjects are never contacted), pairs it with AI-generated 'illustrations' that frequently…

Content Production & Automation3 – Proficiency⚑ controversy
Generative AI rewriting + AI image generation pipeline (models unspecified); automated quaSource →

2025Penske Media Corporation

Antitrust lawsuit against Google over AI Overviews impact on publisher traffic and revenue (filed Sept. 12, 2025, US District Court, District of Columbia); first news publisher antitrust suit against Google over AI Overviews; 101-page complaint by 14 plaintiff entities (Rolling Stone, Variety, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, etc.) alleges Google systematically coerces publishers into providing…

Litigation & IP Rights2 – Adoption⚑ controversy
Google AI Overviews (defendant) — Google Search AI-generated summary feature; antitrust anSource →

2026Centre Daily Times (McClatchy)

First NewsGuild-CWA newsroom to unionize specifically in response to AI adoption. McClatchy made the State College, PA daily an early test market for its Content Scaling Agent (CSA), a Claude-powered tool that repackages articles into AI-generated summaries and video scripts; reporters were required to publish at least one CSA story a week. After McClatchy changed its byline policy in Feb. 2026 to run reporters'…

Content Production & Automation2 – Adoption⚑ controversy
McClatchy Content Scaling Agent (CSA) — Anthropic ClaudeSource →

2023The New York Times

Copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft (The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation et al, Case No. 1:2023cv11195, filed Dec. 27, 2023, US District Court SDNY); landmark first major newspaper copyright suit against an AI company; claims OpenAI unlawfully used millions of NYT articles to train ChatGPT without authorization or compensation; exhibits show ChatGPT able to reproduce NYT articles…

Litigation & IP Rights2 – Adoption⚑ controversy
OpenAI ChatGPT + Microsoft (defendants) — training on NYT content; verbatim reproduction iSource →

Elsewhere in North America

Canada 18
Data from J·Index, the Journalism AI Index — every case verified against a published source. See the methodological note for how cases are collected and coded. Updated 2026-07-23.