After a string of AI controversies, The New York Times emailed a “periodic reminder” to freelancers on Tuesday reminding them of the paper’s AI policy.
“To be clear on AI: All writing and visuals that freelancers submit to The Times must be the product of human creativity and craft, and all submissions must consist solely of their original reporting, writing and other work,” reads the email, reviewed by Futurism. “Freelance contributors must not submit any material for publication that contains content generated, modified or enhanced by [generative AI] tools, or that has been input into these tools.”
The email pointed its contributors to a detailed document on its “policy on freelancers’ use of generative AI tools,” which forbids the inclusion of AI-generated or AI-modified text and images in any reporting contributed to the paper. While AI tools are acceptable for “high-level” brainstorming, the notice warns, freelancers “may not use [generative AI] tools to help you write any part of a story.”
“Using [generative AI] tools to create, draft, guide, clean up, edit, improve, or rephrase your writing is strictly prohibited,” it continues. As for what specific tools the company’s actually speaking to, the document forbids “chatbots like Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity; AI-powered search products like Google AI Overviews; and image generators like Adobe Firefly, DALL-E and MidJourney.”
The reminder comes as the paper of record continues to grapple with AI-generated content, including preventable AI-spun errors, making its way into its pages. Back in March, the NYT faced scrutiny after a contributor to its competitive “Modern Love” column was publicly accused of using AI to generate an emotional personal essay; that writer later told Futurism that she’d used chatbots to conceptualize and edit the piece. Then, in April, the paper cut ties with a freelancer who admitted to using AI to cook up a book review that was found to be riddled with plagiarism after its publication.
And while these controversies indeed stemmed from the work of freelancers, the institution found itself in hot water yet again last week, when a substantial correction revealed that an article bylined by the NYT’s Canada Bureau chief contained an AI-fabricated quote weeks after publication. (As Futurism reported in March, a writer at Condé Nast’s Ars Technica was fired for a similar error.)
“An article on April 15 about the success that Mark Carney, the Liberal prime minister of Canada, has had in building cross-party alliances was updated after The Times learned that a remark attributed to Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader, was in fact an AI-generated summary of his views about Canadian politics that AI rendered as a quotation,” reads the update. “The reporter should have checked the accuracy of what the AI tool returned.”
Futurism reached out to the NYT to ask whether this kind of reminder is normal, and whether the notice has anything to do with its recent flurry of AI scandals. We didn’t immediately hear back.
More on the New York Times: We Talked to a Writer Accused of Publishing An AI-Generated Essay in The New York Times