AI-generated 'pink slime' journalism emerges in regional Western Australia

Experts say a series of AI-generated online news outlets posing as local mastheads in regional Western Australia could be the first recorded example of "pink slime" journalism in Australia.

"Pink slime" is the colloquial term for AI-generated news sites masquerading as legitimate local journalism to attract clicks and advertising revenue and, in some cases, to influence politics.

This form of low-quality, AI-generated news, widespread in the United States, is named after a by-product of cheap, highly processed meat products.

In February, AI-generated news sites started appearing in WA regional hubs with numerous mastheads, including The Mandurah Reader, Esperance Enosis and The Bunbury Guardian.

The ABC began investigating the sites, which claimed to be staffed by local journalists, after The Bunbury Guardian began publishing content that appeared to be directly scraped from ABC South West WA stories.

The AI-generated mastheads, owned by a parent company called Scholastica, were all taken offline after the ABC began making enquiries.

Targeting 'vulnerable' communities

Brigid O'Connell was a journalist in Melbourne for 20 years before she became an AI media academic and PhD candidate.

While pink slime is widespread in other parts of the world, Ms O'Connell said that, until now, the phenomenon had not infiltrated Australia's media landscape.

Ms O'Connell said pink-slime journalism targeting regional towns was a "big concern".

"Regional communities are the most vulnerable … they've often seen their local newspaper shut down," she said.

The Bunbury Guardian's articles were published under the by-lines of reporters the site claimed had been reporting on news in Bunbury for more than a decade. It listed AI-generated biographies and profile photos for these reporters.

Ms O'Connell said the lack of accountability in AI journalism had lowered the credibility of traditional news outlets, which were already suffering a drop in readership.

"Who is behind these new sites? What's their agenda? Who's funding these new sites? Do they have political links?" she said.

Undermining truth

The Bunbury Guardian published two articles detailing criminal cases before the courts, including AI-generated images of crime scenes.

University of Technology Sydney Centre for Media Transition coordinator Monica Attard said the obligations of a news outlet in court reporting were well established.

"The rules are not very hard to follow: You can only report what's sitting in court,"

"Anything outside of it is absolutely off limits."

Professor Attard said this kind of reporting on court cases was "problematic" for justice.

"You can't be sure that [AI-generated imagery] is being used to support and not undermine truth,"

"And that raises all sorts of problems for a legal case."

In its most recent survey, the University of Canberra's Digital News Report found that community news was the third-most-trusted news source among members of the public in Australia.

Curtin University senior lecturer in journalism Glynn Greensmith said taking advantage of that trust set a dangerous precedent.

Under the editorial policies listed on its website, The Bunbury Guardian said it utilised technology, including AI, to "enhance our news gathering and production processes".

"AI assistance may be used for tasks … always under the direct supervision of our human journalists,"

"[AI] serves as a tool, not a replacement for human judgement."

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The orchestrator

The listed editor of The Bunbury Guardian and the parent company, Scholastica, did not respond to the ABC's requests for comment.

Soon after ABC inquiries were made, the AI-generated news mastheads were removed from the internet, and all mention of AI use was removed from Scholastica's website.

An investigation into the ownership structure of the sites revealed that the 2015 recipient of the federally backed New Colombo Scholarship, Anton Lucanus, was behind the mastheads.

In a statement, Mr Lucanus said establishing the websites was an "experiment" gone wrong.

"The tech is so exciting so people can't wait to see what it can build, but as I have learned here, there does need to be guardrails," he said.

The ABC found Mr Lucanus had used the ABN of Perth-based business Full Body Health Pty Ltd in the domain registration for two of the sites.

In a statement, Full Body Health denied any involvement or knowledge of the sites.

Mr Lucanus said he had set up a website for Full Body Health in exchange for shares in the company.

He said the use of the ABN was "an administrative error".