AI 'Newspapers' Are Scraping Content From Other Publications

The “South Florida Standard” was, until recently, a website offering regularly updated local news stories in the Sunshine State, covering topics ranging from politics, economics, sports, tourism, environmental issues, and tech.
By Susie Madrak — May 15, 2026

I wish I could say this was a shock, but it isn't. AI slop is taking over the internet.

The “South Florida Standard” was, until recently, a website offering regularly updated local news stories in the Sunshine State, covering topics ranging from politics, economics, sports, tourism, environmental issues, and tech. It was also, according to a report by The Florida Trib, merely a “digital mirage masquerading as local news,” with AI-generated reporters and stolen content.

Trib reporter Kate Payne reported on Thursday how the site, now offline but partially preserved on the Internet Archive, featured work it claimed was by “local journalists,” but who were actually “creations of artificial intelligence – complete with fake headshots and made-up biographies peppered with South Florida cliches, their bylines plastered on articles that were lifted from actual news outlets, recycled through AI and republished.”

“Much of the content published by the South Florida Standard appears to have been lifted from Florida Politics, a website run by publisher Peter Schorsch, whose coverage has become a must-read for many political insiders and journalists,” Payne noted.

Support your actual local newspapers!

Florida news site South Florida Standard just shut down after getting busted: fake AI reporters with fake headshots/bios, plagiarized content, and a totally invented editor-in-chief.
mcsp.short.gy/sqFR

— McSpocky™ (@mcspocky.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T22:04:57.650Z

"After The #Florida Trib started asking questions about the South Florida Standard and its purported journalists, administrators of the site began tinkering with its contents and removing staff bios – before taking the site offline entirely." floridatrib.org/2026/05/14/t...

— Craig Pittman (@craigtimes.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T16:03:22.054Z

https://bsky.app/profile/clancyny.bsky.social/post/3mlt2kmuekc2w

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