Earlier today, the Financial Times made a discreet announcement about a new partnership with OpenAI. The deal will allegedly “help improve” Chat GPT’s “usefulness by incorporating FT journalism, and collaborate on developing new AI products and features for FT readers”. In addition, ChatGPT users will be able to see “select attributed summaries, quotes and links to FT journalism in response to relevant queries”.

Might this deal also open the door to publishing AI-generated articles? While the press release makes no mention of it, the FT wouldn’t be the first outlet to take the plunge. Earlier this year, Sports Illustrated was roundly attacked for secretly publishing AI-generated stories — a symptom of the heavy cuts the magazine has had to make in recent years. And before its news division shuttered, BuzzFeed was also using AI to write “SEO-bait travel guides”, which the outlet claimed was merely an experiment to help test new ways for people to contribute content. For a $75-a-month subscription, FT readers may not be hugely impressed…