News App With 50 Million Monthly Users Reportedly Publishing Fake AI Stories

You might be aware of misinformation being spread over the internet like a plague, but there’s an app that might have taken things too far by publishing fake AI-generated stories.

The app is available only in the US and has over 50 million monthly users, so it’s likely people might have stumbled upon it at least once or might be using it regularly. It’s public knowledge that local news across the US has shuttered in the past few years, and that’s where the NewsBreak app comes in to fill that gap.

Positioning itself as "the go-to source for all things local", Newsbreak claims to have over 50 million monthly users. The outlet publishes licensed content from big media firms, including Reuters, Fox, AP, and CNN as well as some information is used from scraping the web for local news or press releases which it rewrites using AI.

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Is NewsBreak Publishing Fake AI Stories?

Now, according to a Reuters report, NewsBreak did something unusual on December 25, 2023, when the app published a fake story about a shooting in Bridgeton, New Jersey. The local police department debunked the story, claiming that no such incident took place. NewsBreak removed the article in a matter of days, citing inaccurate information from a source.

The report also claims that former employees of the app revealed that most of NewsBreak's engineering work is done in China. This has raised some serious concerns about data privacy and the influence of Chinese-based staff on American user data. NewsBreak insists it follows US data laws and maintains that its data is stored on servers based in the US.

The app’s use of AI has led to legal issues, including a $1.75 million settlement with Patch Media for copyright infringement. Another case involving Emmerich newspapers is still in process. Despite these challenges, NewsBreak claims to address the issues and continues to evolve its operations.

The company makes money through ads targeted at its huge female, suburban, or rural user base. The company is under a lot of heat over its ties to China and its use of AI to produce fake news.

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OpenAI To Pay $250 Million To Use News Corp’s Content

OpenAI and News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, The Sun, and several more publishing brands, have signed a multi-year deal to show news from these publications in ChatGPT. News Corp announced the news recently.

OpenAI will not have access to both current and archived content from News Corp’s publications and use the data to further train its AI models. Neither company has revealed the terms of the deal, but a report in The Wall Street Journal suggests that News Corp would receive $250 million over the next five years in cash and credits.