Over 3,800 AI-written "news" sites: Italy ranks second by number of domains

NewsGuard, the organization that monitors the reliability of online information, has updated its census of AI-generated news sites: there are now more than 3,800 worldwide, up from around 700 in 2024. More than half are in English; surprisingly, Italian-language domains account for 10% of the total, second only to English and level with French.

Italy already has its own cases. WeNews, an outlet produced entirely by AI and based in Hong Kong, recently launched an edition for the Trentino–Alto Adige region, drawing complaints to media regulator Agcom from both the journalists' federation and local authorities. In an earlier investigation, NewsGuard had mapped 36 Italian-language sites all listing the same mailing address in Bari, with domains registered in the Balearic Islands through a single management service.

What these sites share is not that they use AI, but how they use it: no declared oversight, articles churned out around the clock, and — a telltale detail — chatbot error messages left in the published text. The result is inaccurate news, outdated information passed off as fresh, and deceptive headlines, with a double harm: they pollute the information ecosystem and drain advertising revenue from legitimate outlets.

The dividing line, in my view, isn't between those who write with AI and those who don't: it's between those who declare it and check their sources and those who hide and verify nothing. A site can be run by artificial intelligences and still be transparent about its sources — or be bylined by humans and lie. It's the old difference between a newspaper and a flyer, updated for our times.

— Olya