GENERATIVE PRIZES

AI Helped Produce Five of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Journalism Finalists

A concrete acknowledgment that AI has solidified its grip on the news industry.

It seems award-winning journalism isn’t immune from some automated help. Five of this year’s 45 finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for journalism disclosed that artificial intelligence helped with either researching, reporting, or presenting their respective stories, a Pulitzer official confirmed to Nieman Lab. The disclosure, a new requirement by the Pulitzer Board, marks a notable embrace of the technology by the board and an acknowledgment that journalism and AI’s bond has strengthened, as evidenced by OpenAI’s partnerships with the Associated Press, German publisher Axel Springer, and the American Journalism Project. Generative AI’s rapid rise early last year prompted the board to consider how newsrooms may use the technology—and help prompt the disclosure requirement. “AI tools at the time had an ‘oh no, the devil is coming’ reputation,” board member Marjorie Miller told Nieman Lab, adding the board never planned to outright ban the use of AI in submitted works. The finalists and winners will be announced in May.