Opinion | More than 200 AI-generated ‘local news’ sites just went dark

Prism News promised ‘zero humans’ and ‘infinite AI scale.’ Local journalists found plagiarism and falsehoods.

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2026 9:27 am

Alex Mahadevan, Angela Fu, Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Graham | Poynter

Prism News has suspended its network of more than 200 AI-generated “local news” sites following investigations from multiple outlets that exposed plagiarism and falsehoods.

Over the last few weeks, I spoke with journalists at Interlochen Public Radio, Source New Mexico and Spin Class about Prism News, an Israel-based company that has alarmed public officials, scraped legitimate local news and violated basic journalism ethics.

Articles on the sites — which bore the tagline “(t)he stuff mainstream media skips, finally getting the coverage it deserves” — were published under fake, AI-generated bylines and regularly included information and quotes lifted from local reporting.

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Opinion | More than 200 AI-generated ‘local news’ sites just went dark

Prism News promised ‘zero humans’ and ‘infinite AI scale.’ Local journalists found plagiarism and falsehoods.

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