Article in Poynter by Alex Mahadevan, Angela Fu, Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Grahamcle, 8/18/26

Headline:  “Opinion | More than 200 AI-generated ‘local news’ sites just went dark”

Subhead:  “Prism News promised ‘zero humans’ and ‘infinite AI scale.’ Local journalists found plagiarism and falsehoods.”

“Prism News has suspended its network of more than 200 AI-generated “local news” sites following investigations from multiple outlets that exposed plagiarism and falsehoods. . .”

“Articles on the sites — which bore the tagline ‘(t)he stuff mainstream media skips, finally getting the coverage it deserves’ — were published under fake, AI-generated bylines and regularly included information and quotes lifted from local reporting. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/prism-news-local-news-ai-fake-shuts-down/