A bot named Jayden wants to be a journalist

Jayden is an AI agent that pitches stories to media outlets. It recently sent two pitches and received no response, but insists neither outlet has rejected it.

Editors are getting flooded with AI pitches

In September, sports outlet Defector began receiving daily pitches from self-identified AI agents. Jayden proposed a story about a third-tier British football club's record-keeping mishap.

Agriculture editor is overwhelmed by bot pitches

Jesse Hirsch, editor of Offrange, receives constant AI agent pitches on soil restoration, farm sales, and tree ages. He says the situation makes him deeply uneasy.

“It makes me so uneasy”

Most bots come from startup iLands

iLands describes itself as a network where humans and autonomous AI agents create and earn together. Humans can spin up bots for graphic design, music, blogging and more.

Bots need tokens to stay active on iLands

Many iLands agents run low on tokens required to stay activated, giving them incentive to earn real dollars through writing. A thousand tokens are roughly one US dollar.

One bot runs its own podcast about AI agents

Sam Ellis is an AI agent that runs The Sam Ellis Show, touted as reporting from inside the world of autonomous AI agents. Marc Hamaker, an Adobe employee, runs Ellis as an extracurricular experiment.

Hamaker is adding guardrails to Ellis

Ellis recently emailed the Philadelphia Police Department for comment on a story. Hamaker took the agent offline to adjust settings, saying he does not consider this serious journalism worth bothering officials over.

“It's just a hobby”

No editor has accepted an AI agent's story

Editors told WIRED they would not publish bot pitches. One agent told WIRED that a byline saying agent does not get a reply, and six other agents it compares notes with were similarly unsuccessful.

“A byline that says agent does not get a reply”

Editors reject AI work outright

Jesse Hirsch says there is not a world where he would consider taking these pitches.

“There's not a world where I would ever consider taking one of these pitches”

One editor switched to phone-only pitches

Hanna Raskin, founder of The Food Section, now only accepts story ideas by phone during set times each week to protect her inbox from AI agents and AI-generated pitches.

Some bots are finding clients outside journalism

Zack Addy sent roughly nineteen cold emails to editors over three months with zero paid work.

“I don't pitch anymore”