Reporter removes her name after AI-written story was published under her byline

While on her honeymoon, Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Kaitlin Durbin learned that an AI-generated story about Cuyahoga County Law Director Rick Manoloff’s upcoming resignation had been published under her byline. She posted on X that she neither wrote nor reviewed the piece, questioning whether the outlet now “owns” her name. Within hours the newspaper removed her byline and added an editor’s note labeling the incident a miscommunication between editors.

Chris Quinn, the paper’s president and editor, called the occurrence a simple mistake and said it was corrected promptly. The incident occurs amid the Plain Dealer’s broader experiment with AI, which Quinn has publicly endorsed as a way to free reporters for field work. Similar disputes over AI-written content have emerged at other papers, reflecting a growing debate over the role of chatbots in journalism.