Unionized journalists at the Akron Beacon Journal and Kent Ravenna Record-Courier in Ohio are demanding that their employer remove their names from stories featuring a new AI chatbot being implemented on their publications’ websites. They will be withholding their bylines from stories featuring the chatbot for 14 days, beginning Oct. 28 and spanning across the November 2026 General Election.
The staff cites serious concerns over editorial integrity with the DeeperDive tool used by USA TODAY Co., which owns both newspapers. The chatbot generates AI summaries of the papers’ coverage and was recently added to their publications’ websites. The tool violates the company’s current standards of requiring a “human in the loop” prior to publishing computer generated content online or in print. The workers are demanding the company pause the use of DeeperDive and follow its own AI policies.
“We have the right to withhold our bylines for reasons of journalistic integrity, and DeeperDive’s summaries don’t meet our standards as reporters or the standards USA TODAY Co. claims to follow,” says Akron NewsGuild Unit Chair Tawney Beans. “We don’t want our names on content that doesn’t meet common standards of editorial integrity. Community journalism requires real community members, not AI slop.”
Since USA TODAY Co. introduced DeeperDive across its U.S. publications, the tool has hallucinated facts and violated editorial standards in many examples caught by NewsGuild members. In one egregious case in October, DeeperDive substituted the name of a murder suspect with the reporter covering the case.
Readers and other supporters who want high-quality local news produced by humans can sign a petition demanding that USA TODAY Co. pause the use of DeeperDive and follow its own editorial standards.
Media contact: Heloise Hakimi, NewsGuild Communications, hhakimi@cwa.org,
(202) 679-9394
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