Nearly 10% of articles in U.S. newspapers contain AI-generated text, with smaller publications showing the highest usage at 9.3% and larger ones at just 1.7%, a University of Maryland study reveals.
The analysis of 186,000 articles from summer 2025—using a Pangram Labs detection tool—found 5.2% fully AI-generated and 3.9% mixed human-AI, while 91% of publishers and 95% of authors failed to disclose AI involvement.
AI use spiked among veteran reporters from 0% in 2022 to 40.4% in 2025, with none disclosing it; opinion pages in major outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal ran 219 AI-influenced pieces, mostly by public figures—6.4 times more likely than news articles.“
Disclosure of AI use is especially important to maintain audience trust,” the study warns, noting the few disclosures appeared only in environmental reports like weather and air quality alerts.