The New York Times adopts AI tools in the newsroom

The New York Times has reportedly approved artificial intelligence tools that newsroom staff can use for editing copy, summarizing information, coding, and writing. The publication announced in an internal email that product and editorial staff will receive AI training, according to Semafor, and introduced a new internal AI tool called Echo for summarizing articles, briefings, and other company activity.

Staff were reportedly sent new editorial guidelines detailing permitted uses for Echo and other AI tools, which encourage newsroom employees to use them to suggest edits and revisions for their work, and generate summaries, promotional copy for social media, and SEO headlines.

Other examples mentioned in a mandatory training video shared with staff include using AI to develop news quizzes, quote cards, and FAQs, or suggesting what questions reporters should ask a start-up’s CEO during an interview. There are restrictions, however — the company told editorial staff that AI shouldn’t be used to draft or significantly alter an article, circumvent paywalls, input third-party copyrighted materials, or publish AI-generated images or videos without explicit labeling.

It isn’t clear how much AI-edited copy The Times will allow in published articles. The outlet promised that “Times journalism will always be reported, written and edited by our expert journalists,” in a memo it released last year, and it reaffirmed that commitment to human involvement a few months later.

“Generative A.I. can sometimes help with parts of our process, but the work should always be managed by and accountable to journalists,” read The Times’ generative AI principles, adopted in May 2024. “We are always responsible for what we report, however the report is created. Any use of generative A.I. in the newsroom must begin with factual information vetted by our journalists and, as with everything else we produce, must be reviewed by editors.”

Alongside Echo, other AI tools apparently greenlit for use by The Times include GitHub Copilot as a programming assistant, Google Vertex AI for product development, NotebookLM, the NYT’s ChatExplorer, OpenAI’s non-ChatGPT API, and some of Amazon’s AI products.

These AI tools and training guidelines are rolling out as The Times remains embroiled in a legal battle with OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that ChatGPT was trained on Times content without permission. Many other publications have also introduced AI into their newsrooms at varying scales, ranging from tools for spelling and grammar to generating entire articles.