Carly Martinetti

BREAKING: Business Insider just dropped a bombshell. Journalists there can now use AI to write first drafts… without telling readers: @oliverdarcy from Status first reported yesterday about the memo by editor-in-chief Jamie Heller. It’s a massive shift from outlets like AP, which explicitly requires AI disclosure when used, to BI's "no disclaimers needed" approach. Here's what caught my attention: BI's parent company, Axel Springer, has licensing deals with OpenAI and Microsoft. So when your pitch turns into a BI article, it doesn't just inform readers—it potentially trains the next generation of AI models. Think about that pipeline for a second: Your carefully crafted pitch becomes coverage, which becomes training data, which shapes how future AI understands your industry. PR IMPLICATIONS: 1. The trust gap will widen: Outlets that disclose AI use vs. those that don't will likely see different trust metrics. A recent survey by Journalist’s Resource found 94% of news audiences want AI disclosure. 2. Although journalists must still 'own' the final piece per the memo, there's still going to be SOME kind of AI-driven transformation resulting in a DIFFERENT article than if the journalist had written it without AI. Which model will they use? What biases/preferences will that model inject? How will those shape the final piece? TBD... 3. Expect AI screening of pitches: If journalists are using AI to draft articles, it's only a matter of time before they use it to screen pitches too. What that means and how it’ll affect pitching remains to be seen. BOTTOM LINE: Some publications will continue to bet on trust through disclosure. Others are betting audiences won't care… or know. But either way, it’s going to be very difficult (but very interesting) to predict all the second-order effects from AI taking up more and more real estate in the newsroom. To my PR friends: How are YOU parsing all of this? Sources: status.news/p/business-insid… journalistsresource.org/medi… ap.org/the-definitive-source…