Fake AI generated news is a threat to local news. But there is a way to fight back

A troubling news story hit our team’s Slack channel this week.

The Investigative Journalism Foundation uncovered a mostly AI-generated local news publication next door in Surrey called Surrey Speak.^[1] Fake quotes, AI-generated images and full of factual inaccuracies, all getting shared by the account’s 10,000 social media followers.

These types of fake websites take a day to set up and minutes to write stories. Anyone with a middling level of tech skills could set this up. There’s no fact-checking or commitment to journalism. 

I share this information with you to show what the future could hold for local news in Canada. The implications of that for our cities and society are chilling. What news do we trust? Who do we turn to for local information?

When we started the Lookout, we knew one thing would always stay the same: AI tools like ChatGPT would have no place in the creation and writing of our journalism. Since then, I’m proud to say we’ve stayed consistent — no Lookout stories have or will ever be written by AI. 

The reason for this is actually quite simple: the trust you place in us to produce factual, human-written stories is the single most important thing we have. As soon as we start using AI for journalism, that trust is gone. The Lookout as you know it today would not exist.

Do we make mistakes? You bet, no newsroom is perfect. But when we do, we apologize and let readers know.

I tell you all this for a simple reason — the future of local journalism isn’t AI-generated stories, it’s journalists like Nate and our team of freelancers, meeting people in the community, tracking down sources, fact-checking and using their knowledge and skills to write stories.

Anyone can write an AI story. Not everyone can do real local journalism. If you believe in our vision, then we need your help.

I tell you all this because the stakes of all this couldn’t be higher. As fake AI news operators chase page views and website banner ad traffic, we’re charting a different path. Our model is built on readers funding our journalism. It means we’ll never have to decide between journalists and AI.

But to level with you, it also puts us at a distinct disadvantage. Real journalism, written by real people and not AI bots, costs money. The team members, transportation to meetings, website hosting, and technology. It all adds up.

It adds up so much this quarter that we’re actually very behind on our budgets. In fact, we’re 50 members short of where we need to be by the end of March. That impacts our plans in the coming months (which I’ll be sharing more about in the future). 

So we need your help. We need 50 new members to join by March 31 to get our finances back on track, to help fund our planned expansion for our neighbourhood news launch and continue paying our team of journalists.

If we want to fight the rise of fake AI news and the bleak future that could bring to our lives, please consider becoming a member today, to invest in real local journalism (and unlock additional membership benefits). 

At the Lookout, our sustainability as a publication that focuses on real journalism and not AI, is only possible because of readers becoming members.

We also know that not everyone can afford to become a member to access all of our stories. So to make it a little more affordable, we’re dropping the price of a membership by 20% for your first year until the end of March. 

Thank you for your continued support. Even if you can’t afford to become a member, we appreciate you reading and sharing our journalism.

Sincerely,

— Geoff Sharpe, Lookout founder and managing editor, and the entire Vancity Lookout team

[1] Inside a Surrey ‘Local News’ Site Run by AI. Read here.