One of the toughest parts of being a public relations professional is having to ask for a correction.
As a former newspaper reporter, I am keenly aware that 99.9 percent of all errors are not intentional. Maybe the reporter spelled a name wrong, or got a number incorrect or missed a word or two from a quote. It happens. It’s usually painful for the reporter. And it’s usually rectified very quickly.
Oh, the quaint days of asking a human being for a correction. We now live in a world where we have to ask robots for corrections. It’s not going well.
AI-generated Articles Cause Client Issues
At the tail end of 2024, one of our publicly-traded clients issued an important press release after trading hours that had a material impact on their business. It was—to be clear—very, very good news.
Unfortunately, that excitement quickly dissipated when an AI-generated article from a Wall Street news site read completely wrong. Without going into great detail, the AI bot used by this site misread the word “cancel” in the headline as a negative.
Within minutes of the intentionally positive announcement going out, the client found themselves in a defensive posture. A human editor did not mess up—it was an AI bot. And due to the bot's creation speed of the automated story; it was one of the first stories that made it to Google News about the announcement, adding to the client's displeasure.
Media Relations With a Bot
The role of a PR professional in this situation is simple—reach out to the reporter and/or editor immediately and ask for a correction. Ten times out of ten, when an editor is shown incorrect information, the story is updated immediately.
The role of a PR professional in this situation was not as simple.
The byline author was not a real name or person. A disclaimer at the end of the story said “every article is reviewed by a human being," however there was no reporter to contact and no editor listed.
Regardless, the story needed to be corrected. Outreach to general emails and phone numbers lead to nowhere except automated replies and voicemails.
The client became rightfully upset. Why was a negative story showing up in Google News about a positive announcement?
As a last resort, we contacted the site’s Help section for paid members. For the first time, the automated response included a human being’s name. Of course, this human being’s email promptly returned an “out of office” response.
The next morning, a full 18 hours after a completely false story had been published, the outlet finally responded and said, “The story was under review.” But there was nothing to review. The story was clearly wrong and needed to be taken down immediately.
After several more outbound emails (with some colorful language included), the site finally removed the incorrect story—24 hours after it initially posted.
Lessons for Dealing with AI-news
We felt powerless during this frustrating experience. As the proliferation of AI-generated articles continue, the PR industry must be prepared for a future where combatting bad AI in journalism becomes part of the job description.
Here are three pieces of advice from our firm’s experience:
- Make sure headlines—particularly for publicly traded companies—are written in a clear, concise manner that does not confuse AI.
- Pay close attention to media monitoring, especially immediately after a press release goes out. That is when the majority of AI bots do their work, because their competitive advantage is speed.
- Most importantly, level with executives about AI-generated articles, and what it means for their business in advance.
Despite this situation, some AI-generated articles can have also a positive, amplifying effect on your news and brand. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, so it’s vital to let executives know what to expect with AI-generated news, and how you’re preparing for it.
In the end, the AI-generated story that caused so much heartburn has been completely removed from the Internet, as if it never happened.
But stressful experience and lessons learned, will never leave.
Sean O’Leary is Senior Vice President at Susan Davis International.