A proliferation of AI-assisted local news sites runs the gamut.

It is easy to publish things on the internet. It’s a little more time-consuming to report, write, edit and fact-check things. So when a site called Royal Eagle News started publishing a large volume of what appeared to be local news stories a few months ago, I was curious.

A few stories very closely resembled stories published in the Monterey County Weekly, where reporters (with their human brains) had attended meetings, interviewed other humans, read documents and written stories. But the facts are the facts – they cannot be copyrighted – so it might be unremarkable that Royal Eagle would have a similar story about a parking ban at Bixby Bridge in Big Sur or about immigration enforcement policy changes implemented by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

The writing was a little different, whether done by a person or an AI tool. But in a few cases, the quotes were the same. So I asked some of the people quoted if they’d ever heard from Royal Eagle News for an interview. County supervisors Wendy Root Askew and Kate Daniels both said no; same for advocate Adriana Melgoza. Sheriff Tina Nieto was named as declining to comment (as she did for a Weekly story), but she and her staff say they were never contacted for a comment by Royal Eagle for a remarkably similar story. It all started to look fishy, like the site was slightly remixing our original reporting and republishing it.

That is plagiarism, and even if it was remixed just enough to avoid copyright infringement, it’s definitely unethical.

Within hours after I called the site creator Rex Butler to ask about it, the site was removed. It had promised to be “independent local journalism for Monterey County and the 831, covering local news, politics, business, crime and safety, education, sports and culture.”

Butler declined to answer specific questions about his process and just says the site is now defunct.

There is, of course, a big range of what gets published with AI assistance, but it can be done without lifting other people’s work. A satirical site, The Sardine Sentinel, started posting on Instagram less than two months ago and quickly amassed a following. Produced by three friends (two writers and a graphic designer), they are aided by ChatGPT and Gemini in adding sarcasm to the tone and juicing up artwork (combining original photography and stock images).

“Everything we learned in marketing, news and advertising – we threw it out the window and decided, let’s see how far and how ridiculous we can get with that on a local level,” says Michael, who previously worked for 20 years in sales at KSBW. (The group asked to be identified by first names only to protect their professional reputations.)

The Sardine Sentinel can be a little mean-spirited, but it’s snarky and funny and most importantly, it is original – even as it mines local news outlets (including the Weekly) for ideas.

Their take on some of the same stories: “Bixby Bridge no-parking signs being ignored, surprising absolutely nobody.” Some turn out to be kind of true. Inspired by graphic designer Thomas, who used to work in a hotel, they posted: “Tourists pay extra for ocean-view rooms, immediately complain ocean is too loud.” Then they heard from multiple readers who work in hotels that yes, this actually happens – as with effective satire, it has a kernel of reality.

In another upstart site, MyPG News, creator David Ericksen says he is using AI to try to get at reality, with an agent he created via ChatGPT scouring the internet for stories. That includes everything from government documents to Reddit posts to published news stories in outlets like the Weekly. In many ways, it resembles an aggregator, with just a brief mention of keywords and then links to the original reporting (this is a game-changer compared to the plagiarizing style – without credit – of now-defunct Royal Eagle News).

Ericksen, who is retired from the Navy, says he’s spending about five hours a day on the site, and reviews everything his AI agent grabs before he posts it.

There’s obviously a massive volume of information out there swirling, and I think there’s a role for AI-driven aggregators or other types of platforms in finding, distilling and sharing it. But how people do that – and articulating what standards we are following – is going to be critical in maintaining the public’s trust.

Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com.