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Medium reported severity Internal Action

Wyoming newspaper editor says a new reporter's stories carried AI-generated quotes from six people, including the governor; the reporter resigned

In summer 2024 a reporter who had joined the Cody Enterprise, a small newspaper in Cody, Wyoming, about two months earlier wrote stories with the help of generative AI. A reporter at the competing Powell Tribune noticed robotic phrasing and quotes that seemed off, including a 26 June story about a local parade that ended with an explanation of how to structure a news story. According to the Powell Tribune reporter, the Enterprise reporter admitted using AI in his stories, and he then resigned. The Enterprise's editor told the Associated Press that a review had found seven stories with AI-generated quotes from six people, and that people he spoke to in the review said they had never talked to the reporter. A spokesperson for Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said one quote attributed to the governor was entirely fabricated and another partly fabricated. The editor and publisher apologised in editorials, and the editor said the paper would adopt an AI policy. The reporter did not respond to the AP. The AI tool used is not identified.

AI system
Unidentified AI writing tool
Occurred
26 Jun 2024
Reported
14 August 2024
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Professional Harm
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Work
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Generative AI that the reporter used to help write news stories; the sources do not name the program

What Happened

The stories. A reporter at the Powell Tribune, a competing Wyoming newspaper, noticed that quotes from the governor and a local prosecutor in Cody Enterprise stories seemed slightly off and that some phrasing sounded nearly robotic. A 26 June 2024 Enterprise story about a comedian chosen as grand marshal of the Cody Stampede parade ended with a sentence explaining the inverted-pyramid structure of a news story. A story about a shooting in Yellowstone National Park included a closing sentence that the Powell Tribune reporter said sounded like the life lesson a certain chatbot tacks on, and a story about a poaching sentence carried quotes from a wildlife official and a prosecutor that read like a news release; he said there was no such release and the agencies involved did not know where the quotes came from.

The quotes. The Enterprise's editor told the Associated Press that a review of the reporter's stories had found seven with AI-generated quotes from six people, and that the people he spoke to said the quotes sounded like something they would say but that they had never talked to the reporter. The Powell Tribune reporter wrote that seven people told him they had been quoted without speaking to the reporter. A spokesperson for Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said one quote attributed to the governor, in a story about a new OSHA rule, was entirely fabricated and another was partly fabricated; the governor's staff learned of them only when the Powell Tribune called.

The resignation. According to the Powell Tribune reporter, the Enterprise reporter admitted using AI in his stories, said he had never intentionally tried to misquote anybody and promised corrections and apologies; he then resigned. He did not respond to the AP. The editor wrote that he had failed to catch the AI copy and apologised that AI was allowed to put words that were never spoken into stories. The publisher called AI a new form of plagiarism and said the paper now had a system to recognise AI-generated stories.

Reported harm

According to the Powell Tribune reporter, the Enterprise reporter admitted using AI in his stories and then resigned; the newspaper says AI-generated quotes were attributed to six people who never spoke to him.

Outcome

Resolved

The reporter resigned. The newspaper reviewed the stories he wrote, found AI-generated quotes in seven of them, and its editor and publisher apologised in editorials. The editor said the paper had no AI policy and would put one in place.

What remains unknown

  • Which AI program the reporter used and what he asked it: no source names the tool or describes the prompts.
  • The exact date of the resignation: the AP reports only that he resigned before its 14 August 2024 report.
  • Whether the newspaper asked him to resign or he left on his own initiative.
  • Whether the six people given fabricated quotes suffered any consequence beyond the misattribution.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Enterprise's editor told the AP that a review found seven of the reporter's stories carried AI-generated quotes from six people who had never spoken to him, and wrote that AI was allowed to put words that were never spoken into stories. The Powell Tribune reporter says the Enterprise reporter admitted using AI in his stories. One published story ended with a generic explanation of news-story structure. The reporter filed the AI-generated text and resigned after it was exposed. The AI program and his prompts are not identified.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A 26 June 2024 Cody Enterprise story about the Cody Stampede parade's grand marshal ended with a sentence explaining the inverted-pyramid structure of a news story, which a Powell Tribune reporter took as a sign of generative AI.

Causal attribution. The Powell Tribune reporter's reading of the text, relayed by the AP.

  • apnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'came in a June 26 article about the comedian Larry the Cable Guy being chosen as the grand marshal of a local parade. It concluded with an explanation of the inverted pyramid'; 'This structure ensures that the most critical information is presented first, making it easier for readers to grasp the main points quickly.'
  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'came in a 26 June article about the comedian Larry the Cable Guy being chosen as the grand marshal of the Cody Stampede parade.'
Reported The Enterprise's editor says a review found seven of the reporter's stories carried AI-generated quotes from six people, and that people he spoke to in the review said they had never talked to the reporter; the governor's spokesperson says one quote attributed to the governor was entirely fabricated and another partly fabricated.

Causal attribution. The newspaper's own review and the governor's office, relayed in one AP report; the review itself was not published.

  • apnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'the Enterprise discovered seven stories that included AI-generated quotes from six people'; 'but that they had never actually talked to'; 'One quote was entirely fabricated and another was partially fabricated'
  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'They have discovered seven stories that included AI-generated quotes from six people'; 'included a quote from the Governor that was entirely fabricated'
Reported According to the Powell Tribune reporter, the Enterprise reporter admitted using AI in his stories, and he resigned.

Causal attribution. The admission is the Powell Tribune reporter's account; the reporter did not respond to the AP.

Reported The editor apologised that AI was allowed to put words that were never spoken into stories, said the paper had no AI policy and would adopt one; the publisher said the paper now has a system to recognise AI-generated stories.

Causal attribution. The newspaper's own statements in editorials and to the AP.

  • apnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'apologized that “AI was allowed to put words that were never spoken into stories.”'; 'The Enterprise didn’t have an AI policy'; 'the newspaper now has a system in place to recognize AI-generated stories'
Reported The reporter told the Powell Tribune he had never intentionally tried to misquote anybody and promised corrections and apologies; he did not respond to the AP.

Causal attribution. His own words as quoted by the Powell Tribune reporter, recorded as counterevidence on intent.

  • apnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Obviously I’ve never intentionally tried to misquote anybody'; 'did not respond to an AP phone message'

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-11-01 through an Internet Archive capture (the live page returned HTTP 403). AP report by its Wyoming correspondent, quoting the Enterprise editor, the Powell Tribune reporter and the governor's spokesperson. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-11-01 (HTTP 200). The Guardian's version of the AP report; same reporting chain, not independent. It carries the governor's spokesperson's emailed statement in fuller form. Applies to s2.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The newspaper and the stories are in Cody, Wyoming (AP). No residence is used.

Reviewed for publication 2026-11-01: Published because the newspaper's editor says its review found AI-generated quotes from six people in seven of the reporter's stories, a published story carried generic AI-style text, the reporter reportedly admitted using AI, and he resigned. The AI tool is not identified and the admission is relayed by a competing reporter.

People described

A reporter new to journalism who had worked at the Cody Enterprise for about two months, used generative AI to help write stories, and resigned after the AI-generated quotes were exposed

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the reporter who used generative AI and resigned (AP). The six people given AI-generated quotes are not counted because no consequence for them beyond the misattribution is reported; readers are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#work#journalism#resignation#fabricated-quotes#generative-ai

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Wyoming newspaper editor says a new reporter's stories carried AI-generated quotes from six people, including the governor; the reporter resigned. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-wyoming-newspaper-reporter-resigned-after-editor-found-ai-generated-quotes-attributed-to-six-people-including-governor

BibTeX

@misc{2024_wyoming_newspaper_reporter_resigned_after_editor_found_ai_generated_quotes_attributed_to_six_people_including_governor,
  title = {Wyoming newspaper editor says a new reporter's stories carried AI-generated quotes from six people, including the governor; the reporter resigned},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-wyoming-newspaper-reporter-resigned-after-editor-found-ai-generated-quotes-attributed-to-six-people-including-governor}
}

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