Quoting New York Times Editors’ Note
Simon Willison · Simon Willison · 2026-05-10
The New York Times issued an editors' note correcting a story after a reporter published an AI-generated summary of Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's views as a direct quotation without verifying its accuracy.
Appears in
Extraction
Topics: ai-hallucinationsjournalismgenerative-aimedia-accuracy
Claims
- A New York Times reporter published an AI-generated summary of Pierre Poilievre's political views as a direct quotation attributed to him.
- The reporter failed to verify the accuracy of the AI tool's output before publication.
- The corrected article now accurately quotes from a real Poilievre speech delivered in April 2026.
- Poilievre did not use the word 'turncoats' in the speech referenced by the original article.
Key quotes
This article was updated after The Times learned that a remark attributed to Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader, was in fact an A.I.-generated summary of his views about Canadian politics that A.I. rendered as a quotation. The reporter should have checked the accuracy of what the A.I. tool returned.