The Most Downloaded News App in the U.S. May Have Published Dozens of Fake, AI-Written Stories

NewsBreak, a popular news reading app in the United States, has been accused of releasing over 3 dozen erroneous AI-written materials over the last three years, resulting in real-world consequences. With more than 50 million downloads, NewsBreak dominates the Google Play Store and positions itself as a local news source. The app actually rules the app store’s news charts, with only X and Reddit having a higher ranking. Operating exclusively in the USA, the app serves as an aggregator, compiling news from reliable sources such as CNN, Fox, and Reuters. According to an investigative report released on Wednesday, the app has stolen content from others and employed AI at least 40 times since 2021 to post fabricated bylines and false stories.

So far, the app’s heinous posts have caused a great deal of anguish in real life. One of the most popular posts was the one alleging that a shooting occurred in Bridgeton, New Jersey.  The city police department has refuted all of the statements stated in that post, thus it is obvious that nothing similar occurred. The story was published on Christmas Eve last year, and NewsBreak stated that it sourced the information from another website. Another example of misleading occurred when a food bank in Colorado had to turn away patrons because NewsBreak had publicized the incorrect timing for food distribution. A charity group in Pennsylvania also stated that NewsBreak published false news twice that it was holding a 24-hour foot care charity event for the homeless.

After receiving many emails about “Information Inaccuracies” from various sources, NewsBreak removed five articles that included inaccurate information. Additionally, the app added a disclaimer to its homepage in March that read, “Content may not always be error-free.” Along with these false postings, the app was accused of stealing content from other websites without permission and of reaching settlements with two publications for copyright infringement. According to reports, Jeff Zheng, the CEO of NewsBreak, has acknowledged the issue and is looking into it with his team. 

Despite having its headquarters in the United States and representing itself to investors as an American business, Newsbreak began as a division of Yidian, a Chinese company controlled by a state-affiliated enterprise in China. Yidian is no longer associated with the business, but IDG Capital, a Beijing-based organization that the Pentagon claims is connected to the Chinese military, is one of its main investors. Many of the app’s former workers disclosed to Reuters that Chinese developers manage the majority of its algorithm-related work. Although the CEO hasn’t addressed this, he has stated that NewsBreak conforms with US privacy and data laws and that all of its data is kept on US Amazon servers. additionally, that the Chinese employees can only access anonymous data on those servers. 

NewsBreak isn’t the only company being scrutinized for AI content. It’s said that a lot of US local news organizations use AI to generate stories, and they frequently credit those pieces to individual AI characters along with their whole backgrounds.