Gannett, America’s largest local newspaper owner and publisher of USA Today, has begun using AI to mass-produce articles about lottery results across dozens of its publications. This algorithmic content strategy raises significant ethical concerns as the automated articles frequently direct readers to Jackpocket, an online lottery platform that provides Gannett with financial kickbacks—all while gambling addiction rates soar nationwide, a trend Gannett’s own journalism has documented.
The big picture: Since February 2024, Gannett has deployed AI to generate formulaic lottery content that appears in local newspapers across multiple states, creating a nationwide pipeline of automated gambling-related articles.
- The articles often feature vague attributions like “Staff” or “Staff reports,” while others carry bylines of actual Gannett editors or digital producers, potentially misleading readers about their automated nature.
- This editorial strategy coincides with what Gannett itself has reported as an “explosive rise in gambling addiction” in the United States.
Key details: The AI-generated articles consistently promote Jackpocket, an online lottery platform that has a financial relationship with Gannett.
- Readers who click through to Jackpocket from these articles generate financial kickbacks for Gannett, creating a direct economic incentive for the media company to publish lottery content.
- The lottery data appears to come from TinBu, a lottery data compiler that supplies information to various media outlets.
Why this matters: The practice represents a concerning intersection of automated content production, gambling promotion, and potential conflicts of interest in journalism.
- Using AI to create content that financially benefits the publisher through gambling referrals raises serious questions about editorial ethics and responsibility.
- The algorithmic approach to content creation allows Gannett to scale gambling-focused articles across numerous local markets with minimal human oversight.
Ethical implications: Gannett’s dual role as both a news publisher reporting on gambling addiction and a promoter of lottery participation creates a troubling contradiction.
- The company is simultaneously warning readers about gambling risks through its journalism while using AI to generate content that encourages lottery participation.
- The opaque attribution of AI-generated content potentially undermines reader trust and transparency standards traditionally expected in journalism.
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