‘They just own my name now?’ Ohio newspaper slaps…

In September 2024, journalist Kaitlin Durbin publicly challenged her employer, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, after discovering her byline on an article she did not write. The piece, covering the resignation of a county law director, had been generated by artificial intelligence while Durbin was away on her honeymoon.

What happened

Upon returning to work, Durbin found an AI-generated report on the newspaper's website, Cleveland.com, attributed to her. The article, titled Cuyahoga County Law Director Rick Manoloff to step down Sept. 11, was published without her knowledge or review. Durbin took to social media to voice her concerns, questioning the newspaper's use of her name on automated content.

Following her public criticism, the publication removed her byline and added an editor's note identifying the incident as an error. Chris Quinn, the president and editor of the Plain Dealer, attributed the misattribution to a miscommunication between editors, describing it as a simple mistake. While the newspaper has openly embraced artificial intelligence experiments in its newsroom to assist with drafting, this incident highlighted growing tensions regarding the integration of AI tools in journalism. Durbin, who has been with the paper since 2021, stated that the AI-generated content did not pull information from her past reporting. Despite the correction, the incident contributed to ongoing national debates about the role of chatbots in newsrooms and the protection of reporter bylines.