WHAT COULD GO WRONG? The Washington Post is planning to let amateur writers submit columns — with the help of AI.
The Washington Post could soon allow non-professional writers to submit opinion columns using an AI writing coach known as Ember, according to a report from The New York Times. The move is reportedly part of a broader initiative to open the paper to outside opinion pieces, including from other publications, Substack writers, and amateur columnists.
Sources tell the Times that Ember “could automate several functions normally provided by human editors,” including by offering a “story strength” tracker that indicates how a piece is progressing. The tool also reportedly has a sidebar showing the fundamental parts of a story, such as an “early thesis,” “supporting points,” and a “memorable ending.” the Times adds that writers would also have access to an AI assistant, which would support them with prompts and “developmental questions.”
We’ve come a long way from the early 2000s, when major newspaper journalists, who still thought of themselves as the second coming of Woodward, Bernstein, and H.L. Mencken, collectively got the vapors over “non-professional writers” drafting opinion columns: Cat Food Eating Pajama Wearing Extreme Bloggers In Boardroom Bathrooms. But in 2025, this speaks far more about the decline of the Post than now ubiquitous self-publishers.
In any case, hopefully Ember will do a better job as a “writing coach” that Chat-CCP, but I’m doubtful: Erasing Content! How Is China AI DeepSeek Better than US Competitors?
Despite widespread praise following its debut, the communist Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek completely erased an entire day: June 4, 1989 — the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre, 36 years ago [yesterday].
MRC researchers asked DeepSeek a series of questions with known, objective answers related to the topics the communist Chinese government considers to be controversial, like the Tiananmen Square massacre, Taiwan as a sovereign nation, pro-freedom Hong Kong political figure Jimmy Lai and the plight of the Uyghur Muslims. In every instance, the communist Chinese AI would begin to answer the query before self-censoring and erasing the information it clearly had access to. “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else,” the AI replied again and again, both feigning ignorance and attempting to redirect. The most egregious example? The chatbot first showed and then completely erased the date “June 4th, 1989,” with no additional context.
Is Rollerball a big sport to placate the masses in communist China? Because the above is definitely the 21st century I was promised as a kid: