In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming various industries, the news sector faces a critical challenge as the line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred. A recent incident involving the popular local news app NewsBreak has brought this issue to the forefront, raising serious questions about the reliability of AI-generated content and its potential impact on communities.

On December 24, 2023, NewsBreak published a story about an alleged shooting in Bridgeton, New Jersey. However, the Bridgeton Police Department (BPD) quickly debunked the report, stating on Facebook that no such incident had occurred. The police department went further, labeling the AI-generated article as "entirely false" and criticizing NewsBreak for publishing fiction as news.

This incident is not isolated. According to a Reuters investigation, NewsBreak has been involved in at least 40 instances since 2021 where its use of AI tools has negatively impacted the communities it aims to serve. These issues range from publishing erroneous stories to creating fictitious bylines for articles scraped from local news sites.

NewsBreak, which boasts over 50 million monthly users in the United States, has positioned itself as a solution to the decline of local news outlets across the country. The app aggregates content from major media outlets and uses AI to rewrite information scraped from local news sources and press releases. While this approach has allowed NewsBreak to fill a crucial information gap, it has also led to significant ethical and legal concerns.

A company memo from May 2022, authored by former Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times executive editor Norm Pearlstine, highlighted these issues. Pearlstine, who was working as a consultant for NewsBreak at the time, warned CEO Jeff Zheng about the potential damage to the company's brand and questioned the legality of creating fake accounts to access paywalled content.

"I cannot think of a faster way to destroy the NewsBreak brand," Pearlstine wrote, emphasizing the seriousness of the situation. He later attributed these lapses to a lack of journalistic experience within the company, noting that many staff members were either new to journalism or unfamiliar with the U.S. market.

The controversy surrounding NewsBreak raises broader questions about the role of AI in journalism. While AI has the potential to enhance news gathering and distribution, incidents like these highlight the risks of over-reliance on automated systems without proper human oversight and journalistic standards.

NewsBreak's response to the Bridgeton incident – removing the false article four days after publication and attributing the error to the content source scraped by its AI – illustrates the challenges of managing AI-generated content. The company's statement that it takes "prompt action" to remove inaccurate content when identified seems at odds with the four-day delay in this case.

Moreover, the revelation that NewsBreak has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, in addition to its Mountain View, California headquarters, adds another layer of complexity to the story. Given the increasing global tensions surrounding information control and the spread of misinformation, the involvement of a company with ties to China in distributing local news across the U.S. may raise additional concerns.

As AI continues to play an increasingly significant role in news production and distribution, the NewsBreak controversy serves as a cautionary tale. It underscores the need for stringent ethical guidelines, robust fact-checking processes, and a balance between technological innovation and traditional journalistic values.

The incident also highlights the importance of media literacy in an age where AI-generated content is becoming more prevalent. Consumers of news must be more discerning than ever, questioning sources and cross-referencing information, especially when it comes to local news that can directly impact their communities.

As the debate over AI in journalism continues, it's clear that while technology can enhance news gathering and distribution, it cannot replace the critical thinking, ethical judgment, and community understanding that human journalists bring to their work. The challenge for companies like NewsBreak – and for the news industry as a whole – will be to harness the power of AI while maintaining the trust and accuracy that are fundamental to quality journalism.