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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteNotRealNews.net was a demonstration site that used artificial intelligence to generate fake news-style articles. Associated with AI development company Big Bird, it looked like a conventional news homepage—but its stories were not verified reporting, and the site did not clearly label them as fake. That gap between plausible presentation and unverified content was the central risk.
What was NotRealNews.net?
Futurism’s Dan Robitzski reported on February 13, 2020, that NotRealNews.net used AI to populate a news-like homepage with generated articles. Big Bird presented the project as a showcase for algorithms that could help journalists create article templates quickly. The site mixed political, cultural, and scientific topics, including stories about the U.S. presidential race and the coronavirus outbreak that was ongoing at the time. Futurism’s report described the site and its examples.
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Did AI really write the fake articles?
Yes. The articles were generated by AI, but the site was a demonstration—not evidence that the stories were true or independently reported. Some pieces sounded plausible or closely resembled coverage of real events, including the resignation of UK finance minister Sajid Javid. Others contained conspicuous errors, such as “Iran’s Stock Market: ‘There’s a Market,’” and “In wake of death of British soldier, thousands as for plastic-free pubs.”
The mix matters: obvious mistakes might alert a reader, but plausible prose and proximity to genuine events can make unsupported claims harder to spot. Futurism did not report a measured accuracy rate; the examples were qualitative.
#1 Best Overall
Who created it, and how was it meant to be used?
NotRealNews.net was associated with Big Bird, an AI development company. Big Bird’s proposed newsroom workflow was to use AI output as a starting template: a journalist would correct algorithmic errors, add factual information, and verify the story before publication. In that model, AI drafts and a human editor is responsible for checking and shaping the result.
Why was the presentation a problem?
Futurism noted that the stories were not clearly labeled as fake news or as a marketing demonstration. A realistic-looking article without an unmistakable warning could be mistaken for verified reporting by readers, journalists, or people who copy and redistribute the text. The risk is not only that a reader believes a false claim; an unverified sentence can also travel into an editorial workflow and appear more credible after being repeated.
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AI-generated prose is not verification. A convincing style, a familiar headline format, or overlap with a real event does not establish that the details are accurate. Clear labeling and independent checks are necessary when generated material is shown publicly or considered for publication.
How should journalists check an AI-written draft?
For the workflow Big Bird described, the journalist’s job is more than copyediting. Treat every factual assertion as unconfirmed until it is independently supported.
- Separate claims from wording. Extract names, dates, quotations, events, numbers, and cause-and-effect statements from the draft. Do not let fluent phrasing make a claim seem established.
- Verify each claim against reliable evidence. Consult primary documents or direct sources where available, and corroborate important claims with independent reporting. Confirm quotations and context rather than relying on text that merely resembles a real article.
- Check for distortions and invented details. Compare the draft with the underlying evidence. A story that resembles genuine coverage may still misstate what happened or add unsupported specifics.
- Rewrite, then review again. Correct errors, add only supported information, and recheck the finished copy. Editing for grammar or readability does not substitute for factual verification.
- Label generated material clearly when it is presented as a demonstration. Readers should not have to infer that a news-like page is fictional from awkward wording or a disclaimer hidden elsewhere.
NotRealNews.net illustrates both the proposed benefit and the limit of AI-assisted drafting: a system can produce a quick template, but the reporting, verification, and accountability still have to come from people.
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