The New York Times published a fabricated quote from a political leader, generated by AI, attributed to a specific speech on a specific date. Neither happened.

“The reporter should have checked the accuracy of what the A.I. tool returned.” — New York Times correction

“The tool provided links to a video of a speech as well as purported transcribed quotes from that speech. The remark we initially published was, in fact, an A.I.-generated summary incorrectly rendered as a transcript.” — NYT spokesperson

The New York Times’ Canada bureau chief used a generative AI tool to locate remarks by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. The AI returned a fabricated quote, attributed to a speech in March that did not contain those words, and the reporter published it as a direct quotation. The fabrication was caught not by editors or fact-checkers but by a reader on Bluesky who could not find the quote in any public record. The correction took over two weeks to appear. The Times’ own AI policy requires that all AI-assisted content begin with vetted factual information and be reviewed by editors. The incident follows other AI fabrication cases at the Times: a freelance book critic who plagiarized via AI, and a summer reading list populated with made-up book titles. The Walrus investigation noted that these are only the failures conspicuous enough to catch, raising the question of how many routine AI fabrications go undetected.