Meet the Tech Reporters Using AI to Help Write and Edit Their Stories | WIREDSkip to main contentMenuSECURITYPOLITICSTHE BIG STORYBUSINESSSCIENCECULTUREREVIEWSMenuAccountAccountNewslettersSecurityPoliticsThe Big StoryBusinessScienceCultureReviewsChevronMoreExpandThe Big InterviewMagazineEventsWIRED InsiderWIRED ConsultingNewslettersPodcastsVideoLivestreamsMerchSearchSearchMaxwell ZeffBusinessMar 26, 2026 2:00 PMMeet the Tech Reporters Using AI to Help Write and Edit Their StoriesIndependent writers are using AI agents all throughout their reporting process. What’s the value of a human journalist, anyway?Photo-Illustration: WIRED staff; Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyWhen technology reporter Alex Heath has a scoop, he sits down at his computer and speaks into a microphone. He’s not talking to a human colleague—Heath went independent on Substack last year—he’s talking to Claude. Using the AI-powered voice-to-text service Wispr Flow, Heath transmits his ideas to an AI agent, then lets it write his first draft.Heath sat down with me last week to showcase how he’s integrated Anthropic’s Claude Cowork into his journalistic process. The AI tool is connected to his Gmail, Google Calendar, Granola AI transcription service, and Notion notes. He’s also built a detailed skill—a custom set of instructions—to help Claude write in his style, including the “10 commandments” of writing like Alex Heath. The skill includes previous articles he’s written, instructions on how he likes his newsletters to be structured, and notes on his voice and writing style.Claude Cowork then automates the drafting process that used to take place in Heath’s head. After the agent finishes its first draft, Heath goes back and forth with it for up to 30 minutes, suggesting revisions. It’s quite an involved process, and he still writes some parts of the story himself. But Heath says this workflow saves him hours every week, and he now spends 30 to 40 percent less time writing.“I’ve always hated the zero-to-one process of writing a story … Now, it’s actually kind of fun,” he says. “Going out on my own, I realized I need AI to help with the volume.”Heath is part of a growing contingent of tech reporters using AI to help write and edit their stories. The AI workflow is especially enticing for reporters who have gone independent, losing valuable resources like editors and fact-checkers that typically come with a traditional newsroom. Rather than just prompting ChatGPT to write stories, independent journalists say they are re-creating these resources with AI.Their usage raises broader questions about the value of human journalists altogether. If people are using AI to write, edit, and fact-check their stories—what do humans bring to the table? A recent study from Google DeepMind researchers suggests that using AI in a lazy way can make your writing more homogeneous. It’s less creative, it has less voice, and it takes on a more neutral stance. To use AI well, journalists I spoke to say they need to understand why people are paying for their work in the first place. (WIRED’s policy prohibits the use of AI in writing or editing).While some writers have built a career on their analysis and prose, Heath sees his value as his ability to get scoops. Claude makes it easier for him to spend more time chatting with sources and getting information out to his subscribers.Several longtime journalists remarked to me that Heath’s workflow feels like a modern version of a long-standing institution: the rewrite desk. In the days before laptops and smartphones, reporters in the field would call in stories to a newsroom, where writers behind a desk would quickly weave those reported details into articles they could print for the next day’s paper. This allowed some reporters to spend their days covering events and talking to sources. In a way, Claude is now Heath’s rewrite desk.“I feel like I’m cheating in a way that feels amazing,” says Heath. “I never did this because I liked being a writer. I like reporting, learning new things, having an edge, and telling people things that will make them feel smart six months from now.”Jasmine Sun, who previously worked as a product manager at Substack, recently launched her own newsletter covering AI and Silicon Valley culture. Last week, she published an article in The Atlantic about how post-training makes AI models bad at writing by essentially beating out their creativity. Because of that, Sun never uses AI to write, but she has found promise using Claude as an editor.Like Heath, Sun has fed Claude past articles she’s written and notes on her style. But she’s also instructed Claude to focus only on enhancing and developing her voice and taste, and never to be sycophantic. She tells Claude it “should never write a sentence for her. Your goal is to elicit out of Jasmine by providing feedback.”Here’s part of the instructions Sun has shared with her Claude editor: “You are not a co-writer. You cannot perceive—you don’t have experiences, sources, scenes, or emotions to draw from. Your role is to help Jasmine write like the best version of herself—not just who she is on the page now, but who she’s trying to become as a writer. That means understanding both her current voice *and* her aspirations, including the writers and qualities she’s reaching toward.”I asked Sun if she ever feels the urge to be lazy and just let Claude write for her. “I think [Claude] forces me to work harder than I would otherwise,” said Sun. “With a human editor, they're calling you on your bullshit. They're not letting you get away with lazy reporting or floppy prose.”After speaking publicly about her use of Claude, Sun received criticism from people who were offended by the notion that AI could replace a human editor. Critics argued that AI can’t transform your ideas or challenge you as much as a human. Sun says she found the comments confusing. Most Substackers can’t afford to hire a human editor, so by adding Claude and instructing it to challenge her, Sun argues it’s made her process more rigorous. “To me, it is kind of like using Grammarly. You have a tool that says, ‘this sentence is bad,’ and then I have to go fix it,” she says. “[Claude is] more willing to tell me this entire section is bad and you should cut it. It's like a higher level of thinking and abstraction than Grammarly can do.”Casey Newton, author of the newsletter Platformer, tells me AI has made him reassess the value of his publication. “I think there's an interesting distinction here. If the value is in the information, not the writing, then I think people will care less that AI did most of the writing,” says Newton. “If the value is in voice and opinion and argument and analysis, it seems like it's cheap to use AI to do the whole thing”In recent years, Newton has focused on news analysis. But as AI improves, he says he’s changing his approach. "I actually need to shift the balance," he tells me. "I need to do less news analysis and more original reporting."Newton is not using AI to write Platformer today but says he was inspired by Sun’s AI editor and has since tried to re-create it with a Claude agent based on his own articles. “I’ve just been really struck by it. At its best, its feedback is about as good as the feedback I've gotten from human editors,” says Newton.Taylor Lorenz, author of the User Mag Substack, tells me she uses AI to help run her media business. She has Gemini come up with SEO-friendly descriptions for YouTube videos and has Claude help sift through data.However, Lorenz says she’s not using AI to write or edit her articles today. She doesn’t trust AI systems with sensitive reporting materials and finds that AI just hasn’t been useful for writing and editing. She also just loves the craft of writing herself.“I am a journalist because I like to help people understand the world and bring light to different issues,” says Lorenz. “I don’t want the AI to do that.”Kevin Roose, a technology columnist with The New York Times, is using AI to help him produce a book about the race to build artificial intelligence. He claims AI tools have helped him shave two or three years off the process.Most recently, Roose tells me, he created a team of Claude agents to help edit his book, led by a “Master Editor” agent. Other sub-agents are in charge of things like fact-checking, making sure the book matches his writing style, and offering positive and negative feedback. (To be clear, he’s still working with human editors, too.)However, Roose has not handed over the writing of his book to AI just yet. Like Sun, Newton, and Lorenz, Roose feels that he’s still just better at writing than an AI model. “I think the models tend to be fairly generic and depersonalized, but also, I like doing this,” he tells me.Roose makes clear that he’s anything but a skeptic—he expects AI models to get better than him at everything eventually. But he is human, and for now that’s an edge. “I am not under some romantic illusion that I possess a special, irreplaceable perspective. But what I am is a person, and I think that for now people, at least some people, like hearing from people,” he says.This is an edition of Maxwell Zeff’s Model Behavior newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.CommentsBack to topTriangleYou Might Also LikeIn your inbox: Will Knight's AI Lab explores advances in AI‘Flying cars’ will take off this summerBig Story: Inside OpenAI’s race to catch up to Claude CodeHow ‘Handala’ became the face of Iran’s hacker counterattacksListen: Nvidia’s ‘Super Bowl of AI,’ and Tesla disappointsMaxwell Zeff is a senior writer at WIRED covering the business of artificial intelligence. He was previously a senior reporter with TechCrunch, where he broke news on startups and leaders driving the AI boom. Before that, Zeff covered AI policy and content moderation for Gizmodo and wrote some of Bloomberg’s ... Read MoreSenior WriterTopicsModel Behaviorartificial intelligenceClaudejournalismSilicon ValleyRead MoreAre You ‘Agentic’ Enough for the AI Era?Silicon Valley built AI coding agents that can handle most of the grunt work. Now, the most valuable skill in tech is deciding what they should do.Maxwell ZeffGrammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ FeatureThe feature, which Grammarly shut down Wednesday, presented editing suggestions as if they came from established authors and academics—without their consent.Miles KleeGoogle's AI Search Results Love to Refer You Back to GoogleThe company's generative AI search tools increasingly cite its own services, like Google Search and YouTube, over third-party publishers.Reece RogersYann LeCun Raises $1 Billion to Build AI That Understands the Physical WorldMeta’s former chief AI scientist has long argued that human-level AI will come from mastering the physical world, not language. His new startup, AMI, aims to prove it.Maxwell ZeffI Used Google’s New Gemini-Powered ‘Help Me Create’ Tool in Docs. It’s Great at Corporate-SpeakGoogle has injected Docs, Drive, Sheets, and Slides with its Gemini assistant, adding new features that can pull information from your emails and the web to help you draft content. I gave it a whirl.Reece RogersGrammarly Is Offering ‘Expert’ AI Reviews From Your Favorite Authors—Dead or AliveThe tool, offered by the recently-rebranded company Superhuman, gives feedback based on the work of famous dead and living writers—without their permission.Miles KleeInside OpenAI’s Race to Catch Up to Claude CodeWhy is the biggest name in AI late to the AI coding revolution?Maxwell ZeffHow Chinese AI Chatbots Censor ThemselvesResearchers from Stanford and Princeton found that Chinese AI models are more likely than their Western counterparts to dodge political questions or deliver inaccurate answers.Zeyi YangGoogle Shakes Up Its Browser Agent Team Amid OpenClaw CrazeAs Silicon Valley obsesses over a new wave of AI coding agents, Google and other AI labs are shifting their bets.Maxwell ZeffSignal’s Creator Is Helping Encrypt Meta AIMoxie Marlinspike says the technology powering his encrypted AI chatbot, Confer, will be integrated into Meta AI. The move could help protect the AI conversations of millions of people.Matt BurgessThis AI Agent Is Designed to Not Go RogueThe new open source project IronCurtain uses a unique method to secure and constrain AI assistant agents before they flip your digital life upside down.Lily Hay NewmanRiley Walz, the Jester of Silicon Valley, Is Joining OpenAIThe software engineer is famous for his online stunts. Now he’s joining the company behind ChatGPT to work on new ways for humans to use AI systems.Maddy VarnerWIRED is obsessed with what comes next. Through rigorous investigations and game-changing reporting, we tell stories that don’t just reflect the moment—they help create it. When you look back in 10, 20, even 50 years, WIRED will be the publication that led the story of the present, mapped the people, products, and ideas defining it, and explained how those forces forged the future. WIRED: For Future Reference.More From WIREDSubscribeNewslettersLivestreamsTravelFAQWIRED StaffWIRED EducationEditorial StandardsArchiveRSSSite MapAccessibility HelpReviews and GuidesReviewsBuying GuidesStreaming GuidesWearablesCouponsGift GuidesAdvertiseContact UsManage AccountJobsPress CenterCondé Nast StoreUser AgreementPrivacy PolicyYour California Privacy Rights© 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad ChoicesSelect international siteUnited StatesLargeChevronItaliaJapónCzech Republic & SlovakiaFacebookXPinterestYouTubeInstagramTiktok

The integration of artificial intelligence into journalism is rapidly evolving, with tech reporters like Alex Heath pioneering innovative workflows to enhance their reporting processes. As detailed by Maxwell Zeff, Heath utilizes AI agents, specifically Claude Cowork, to significantly augment his workflow, moving beyond the traditional, often laborious, “zero-to-one” process of writing stories. Claude Cowork, connected to services like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Granola AI transcription, acts as a sophisticated drafting assistant, generating initial drafts based on Heath’s instructions and subsequent refinements through iterative feedback. This process, facilitated by a “skill” built around Heath’s writing style—incorporating past articles, newsletter structures, and voice preferences—results in a nearly 40% reduction in writing time.

The growing trend of independent tech reporters embracing AI reflects a broader shift in the industry, particularly for those operating outside traditional newsrooms where resources like editors and fact-checkers may be scarce. Journalists are effectively recreating these essential support functions using AI tools, raising fundamental questions about the continuing value of human journalists. A Google DeepMind study highlights the potential for AI-generated content to become homogenized and lack distinct voice or creativity, emphasizing the need for human oversight and strategic application.

Heath’s workflow mirrors the historical role of a “rewrite desk,” streamlining the reporting process and freeing him to focus on core journalistic activities like sourcing information and engaging with sources. Other reporters, such as Jasmine Sun and Casey Newton, are similarly leveraging AI, albeit with varying approaches. Sun utilizes Claude as an editor to enhance her voice and style, while Newton is reimagining his Platformer newsletter to prioritize information value over writing quality, recognizing AI’s potential to challenge his thinking. Taylor Lorenz, author of the User Mag Substack, employs Gemini for SEO-friendly descriptions and Claude to sift through data, adapting her approach to leverage AI’s analytical capabilities.

Even established media outlets like The New York Times, through columnist Kevin Roose, are experimenting with AI agents—led by a “Master Editor”—to assist in the creation of his upcoming book. Despite concerns about potential homogenization, reporters emphasize the importance of human direction and critical judgment, viewing AI tools like Grammarly as valuable but limited in their capacity to fundamentally transform a piece of writing.

Ultimately, the rise of AI in journalism represents a paradigm shift, forcing reporters to redefine their roles and explore new ways to add value. It's not about replacing human journalists, but about augmenting their capabilities and adapting to a rapidly changing technological landscape, as highlighted by the evolving strategies of individuals like Alex Heath, Jasmine Sun, Casey Newton, and Taylor Lorenz.