For decades, the craft of writing was defined by struggle. As sportswriting legend Red Smith famously put it, writing a column was a process of sitting down at a typewriter and “bleeding.” It was an act of labor, introspection, and manual effort.
However, a new trend is emerging in newsrooms that threatens to replace that “blood” with mere keystrokes. Reports are surfacing of journalists using Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude to generate entire drafts, moving the industry from human-led storytelling to what is being called “AI-assisted” journalism.
The Rise of the “One-Shot” Journalist
Recent reports have highlighted a growing segment of media professionals who are unapologetically using AI to streamline their workflow.
- Alex Heath (Tech Reporter): Uses AI to transform interview transcripts, notes, and emails into prose drafts. He describes the process as a way to bypass the “messy, painful, zero-to-one blank page.”
- Nick Lichtenberg (Fortune ): Has utilized AI to produce a massive volume of work, writing approximately 600 stories since last July. His process involves prompting tools like Perplexity or Google’s NotebookLM to create an initial draft, which he then edits and publishes.
While these writers argue they are simply eliminating “drudgery,” their methods raise a fundamental question: Does the act of writing actually serve a purpose beyond just producing text?
The “AI-Assisted” Defense
To avoid backlash from readers and editors, many news organizations and journalists are adopting the term “AI-assisted” rather than “AI-written.” This distinction is crucial for the industry’s survival.
Fortune’s Editor-in-Chief, Alyson Shontell, defends the practice by stating that the reporting and analysis remain highly original and human-led, even if the prose is bolstered by AI. The argument is that for much of news consumption—where readers simply want facts or a quick summary of a development—the “style” of a human writer is secondary to the speed and efficiency of the information delivery.
This perspective aligns with a broader Silicon Valley ethos: that human expression is often an “inefficiency” that gets in the way of pure data. Proponents of this view suggest that a beautifully written long-form essay is an outdated vessel for what could be a streamlined, six-paragraph information burst.
The Erosion of Connection and Soul
The push toward AI-generated prose is not without significant friction. The backlash is coming from two main fronts:
- Professional Ethics: Many publications, including WIRED, maintain strict bans on AI-generated text to protect journalistic integrity. Even the book publishing industry is actively policing its catalogs to prevent an influx of “AI slop.”
- The Human Element: There is a growing fear that by removing the “pain” of writing, we are removing the very thing that connects a writer to a reader. Writing is not just a way to record thoughts; it is a way of thinking. When a machine handles the drafting, the writer may bypass the critical cognitive process that occurs during the struggle to find the right words.
Interestingly, this tension is also generational. While some veteran journalists view AI as a threat to the craft, younger journalists (Gen Z) often view it as a systemic threat—a tool that might “steal” their career paths before they have even established them.
A Blurred Red Line
The technology is becoming increasingly difficult to contain. Tools like Google’s NotebookLM are designed to help with research and organization, but they are constantly “one prompt away” from offering to write a draft in the user’s own voice.
As more outlets—such as Business Insider —adopt policies that allow AI to assist with drafting, the industry is approaching a tipping point. We are moving toward a world where the distinction between a human voice and a machine-mimicked voice becomes increasingly thin.
If the industry prioritizes volume and efficiency over the unique, lived experience of the writer, we risk a future of journalism that is factually accurate but fundamentally impoverished of soul.
Conclusion
The transition to AI-assisted journalism offers unprecedented efficiency and volume, but it threatens to decouple the act of thinking from the act of writing. If the industry loses the “human seepage” that makes prose meaningful, it may find that while it is delivering more information, it is losing its connection to the reader.
