New York Times Issues Stark Warning About AI Use to Its Freelancers After String of Incidents

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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…

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