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AI slop is already invading Oregon's local journalism

The Ashland Daily Tidings — established as a newspaper in 1876 — ceased operations in 2023, but if you were a local reader, you may not have known because of an elaborate scam using artificial intelligence.

When owner Steve Saslow closed Rosebud Media in 2023, the web domain for the Ashland Daily Tidings and the Medford Mail Tribune became inactive, creating an opportunity for the fraudulent version to replace it. The Daily Tidings website, despite its reliance on copyright infringement and stolen identities, presents readers with banners and pop-up videos from major advertisement-serving companies on the internet, such as Google, YieldMo and the Trade Desk. The future of local journalism in Oregon likely depends on whether its decadeslong retrenchment continues under the growing pressures of Silicon Valley’s push into artificial intelligence, or if the remaining media outlets in the state can convince their readers that human-verified information is a necessity.

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