The New York Times has cut ties with a freelance journalist after discovering he used artificial intelligence to help write a book review that echoed elements of a review of the same book in the Guardian. It came after a New York Times reader flagged similarities between the paper’s January review of Watching Over Her by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, written by author and journalist Alex Preston, and an August review of the same book written by Christobel Kent in the Guardian. The New York Times launched an investigation, during which Preston admitted that he had used AI to assist writing the review and did not spot the sections that were pulled from the Guardian before submitting it. This is an Italy where life is performance, where circuses rise on wasteland.”A spokesperson for the New York Times told the Guardian that Preston would no longer write for the paper. Preston wrote six reviews for the paper between 2021 and 2026, but told the New York Times he had not used AI to aid any of his other articles.

Source: The Times March 31, 2026 18:51 UTC