AI is everywhere these days, but when you see an article online from what has historically been a trusted source, it’s reasonable to think an AI wasn’t involved. At major newsrooms across the country, though, that reality is increasingly becoming less clear cut.

While not every use of AI in the newsroom is as blatant as an AI just drafting a post onto a blank page (although that happens too,) it’s important to know just how the sausage is being made when it comes to the information that’s shaping your worldviews.

Here are just a few news outlets that have started openly using AI in their processes, so you can stay informed about where exactly the information you’re reading is coming from.

The New York Times

Earlier this week, Semafor published an article about new AI tools that New York Times management is reportedly encouraging staffers to try. While the publication’s legal arm is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, it appears the site’s editorial and product wings are ready to embrace AI in the newsroom, at least going by communication from the top.

According to Semafor’s writeup, NYT management is now supplying AI training to its journalists, debuting an internal AI tool called “Echo,” and approving usage of external AI tools including Google’s Vertex AI, a few Amazon AI products, and ironically, Microsoft’s Copilot and a non-ChatGPT tool from OpenAI.

Not all of these will be used for the website’s articles—the New York Times is bigger than what you see on its front page—but Semafor did say that journalists are being encouraged to “use these AI tools” for tasks like mild content revisions or coming up with questions to ask during interviews.

“Generative AI can assist our journalists in uncovering the truth and helping more people understand the world,” read the company’s editorial guidelines on AI, which are public on its site. “We view the technology not as some magical solution but as a powerful tool.”

To that end, there are seemingly still some guardrails still in place. Semafor says the NYT has warned staff not to use AI to draft or significantly revise articles, and has noted that AI use could potentially infringe on copyright or unintentionally expose sources.

Still, with internal communication suggesting writers use AI to come up with headlines and draft social copy, it’s worth keeping hallucination in mind the next time you see a suspicious-seeming NYT story going viral on social media.

For the journalists’ part, Semafor reports that some remain skeptical, worrying that AI in the newsroom could inspire “laziness” and reduce accuracy or creativity.

Quartz

First off, a disclaimer. Quartz is currently owned by G/O Media, which also owned Lifehacker prior to its sale to Ziff Davis in 2023.

With that said, G/O Media has since then become a major proponent of AI in the newsroom, with business news outlet Quartz being its biggest experiment in this.

Scroll through Quartz’ bylines for a bit and you’ll find posts attributed to the Quartz Intelligence Newsroom, which seems to be dropping any of the restraints adopted by the New York Times. Here, the AI “writer” has been quietly generating earning reports for months and has recently started spitting out more general blogs as well. These include stories about potential Bitcoin value or how to delete your Meta-owned social media accounts, but as you might expect, there are issues to be aware of with each.

To Quartz’ credit, it does not hide that these stories are AI-generated and the AI cites its sources, but it doesn’t appear as if there’s human oversight addressing any problems that might arise from this.

For instance, the Quartz article on how to delete your Meta-owned social media accounts seems to be a simple regurgitation of a TechCrunch story (which did not give permission to be summarized, for what it’s worth), but with clear instructions swapped for what the cribbed TechCrunch writer calls “vague” gestures in the right direction. Speaking about other stories written by the Quartz AI, the same writer also said “my editor would never let me publish something so sloppy.”

With that, it’s very likely you might find this story hoping for useful advice, only to leave disappointed and more confused than when you came. But the chances of that only get higher if you land on another story with a less reliable source than TechCrunch.

As noted by Futurism, the Intelligence Newsroom has frequently cited a site called Devdiscourse, which itself has all the appearances of an AI content farm. When robots are citing robots, I do have to ask: why not just go to ChatGPT and prompt it yourself? Even if I accept AI news as worthwhile, it’s unclear to me what G/O’s efforts are adding here.

G/O is slapping a disclaimer on all AI-generated Quartz stories that says it’s in the “first phase of an experimental new version of reporting,” but with AI efforts at the company going back to 2023, it’s unclear if it’ll ever figure out what that experiment is supposed to yield.

In the meantime, keep an eye out on all Quartz bylines, and if you sniff AI, maybe consider giving the sources the bot is blending up for you a read instead. It seems like once you click that attractive headline, you’re basically playing a game of roulette.

AP

If the New York Times is just starting to dip its toes into AI, and Quartz has done a full-on cannonball, then the AP’s use of AI seems to be somewhere in between. On its site, the agency proudly declares that it uses AI for translation, transcription, headlines, research, and even some automated articles, but general blogs are still left to human hands.

“Our goal is to give people a good way to understand how we can do a little experimentation but also be safe,” said AP’s Vice President of News Standards and Inclusion, Amanda Barret, in 2023, when the group first issued its guidelines on artificial intelligence.

Where this will most likely affect you is in the site’s use of Wordsmith, an AI program that specializes in summarizing content like sports scores, weather reports, and, as with Quartz, earnings. AP has been using a version of this program since 2014, so it’s not exactly new, but it’s worth being aware that stories on these topics without a specific author attached likely came from a bot. But aside from these stories, AP’s only other clear use of directly AI-written content was an experiment with reporting public safety incidents in a specific Minnesota newspaper.

Otherwise, the only time you’re likely to see direct AI content on an AP story is its story summarizing pilot: for instance, AI might put a blurb under election day stories to say which offices are up for grabs.

Again, headlines and research are still admittedly AI-assisted, so it’s important to be extra careful when something doesn’t pass your sniff test, but it seems like humans are still taking the forefront here, at least for now.

The Washington Post

The Washington Post’s use of AI is unique, in that it doesn’t directly impact the content. Rather, it’s more of an enhanced search engine for readers who go looking for it. The bot, called “Ask the Post AI,” takes questions, spits out a brief AI-generated response trained on Washington Post content, and then lists relevant articles below in a Google-like manner.

“Answers are AI-generated from published reporting,” warns the bot when you ask a question. “Please verify by consulting the provided articles.”

Responses seem to aim for a measured tone, leaning on quotes from noteworthy sources in matters of opinion, and when I asked the bot about President Trump’s evolving stance on TikTok or Elon Musk’s history with Tesla, I got truthful responses back, although the former was a paragraph long while the latter was only a sentence long. I suppose how detailed your responses are depends on how much the paper has covered a specific topic.

Washington Post hasn’t been clear about which AI tech powers Ask the Post AI, but in general, it won’t bother you unless you go looking for it. Based on the prevalent warnings about its use, it seems to be intended more as a place to start research than as a direct news replacement.

I love an easy, impressive dessert. It must have few ingredients, require little to no elbow grease, and have a big payoff at the end. The galette des rois delivers on all fronts. Often made for Three Kings’ Day at the beginning of January, there’s really no better time to make this dessert than whenever the heck you want it. Why should January have all the fun? Make it for your partner’s birthday, friends dropping in for dinner, or a fancy spin on the king cake for your upcoming Mardi Gras party. With the wonders of pre-made puff pastry, all the hard work is done. In about 40 minutes, you can have a stunner of a dessert.

What is a galette des rois?

A galette des rois, French for “king cake,” is puff pastry filled with a simple frangipane almond paste. There’s an optional féve (trinket or bean) for Three Kings’ Day, but I don’t find surprise choking hazards in my dessert to be much fun, so I’m leaving that out. The only thing that requires some doing is making the almond frangipane filling, which is, blessedly, easy. Simply mix the six room temperature ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon for 60 seconds. Here’s the recipe I use, and try not to substitute out the almond extract if you can help it (because it makes all desserts better).

How to make a French king cake

Once the frangipane is mixed, unravel that jewel of the frozen aisle: store bought, all-butter puff pastry. Make sure it’s thawed according to the package’s directions—you won’t get very far if it’s frozen.

1. Trim the puff pastry

You’ll need two sheets of puff pastry cut into equally sized circles. You can use a guide, like a 9-inch cake pan, placed on top and trace it with a knife. Do this with both sheets of pastry. (Technically, you could omit the trimming and make a rectangular cake. No one’s the boss of you.)

2. Layer on the filling

Place one circle of pastry on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Brush the outer inch with an egg wash. Try not to let it dribble down the edge or it will impede the pastry’s puffing action in those spots. (Egg cooks at a lower temperature than the pastry, so the egg will harden before the pastry has had a chance to rise.) Fill the center with an very thin layer of jam (this is optional, but I like it). Then spread a thick layer of the almond frangipane on top (one-third- to a half-inch thick), but keep it within the egg wash perimeter.

3. Seal the top and bake

Lay the second sheet of pastry over top, and press the edges down gently to make contact with the egg wash edge. Egg wash the entire top of the pastry. Again, don’t let the egg wash dribble off the edges.

If you want to make a classic sun-burst pattern on top, or any pattern at all, now’s the time. Use the back of a paring knife (not the cutting edge) to indent the lines. Bake in a 425°F oven for 25 minutes. Finish with a heavy dusting of powdered sugar.

The galette des rois is best served day-of, but you can cut any leftovers into individual slices, wrap them well, and freeze them. When you’re in the mood for a sweet treat, simply revive it in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes.

Galette des Rois Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 sheets of store bought puff pastry, thawed

• ½ batch of frangipane

• 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam

• Egg wash

• Powdered sugar for decoration

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. Use an overturned 9-inch cake pan to guide you as you cut a large circle out of each sheet of puff pastry. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay one sheet of puff pastry in the center.

3. Egg wash the outer-inch of the pastry. Spread the jam thinly in the center within the egg wash circle. Spread the frangipane over the jam in a thick layer.

4. Top it with the second circle of puff pastry, pressing the edges so they stick to the egg wash. Brush a thin layer of egg wash over the entire top (not the sides). Make a design in the surface with the back of a knife, like a criss-cross pattern or star-burst.

5. Bake immediately for 25 minutes, or until well-risen and the top has deeply browned. Cool completely on a wire cooling rack and dust with powdered sugar before serving.

If you’re an avid e-book reader or someone who has an extensive library of Kindle content, now is the time to back up your books.

Starting on Wednesday, Feb. 26, readers will no longer be able to download Kindle e-books to a computer, where you can convert the file from Amazon’s proprietary, Kindle-specific .AZW3 to a different format for a non-Kindle e-reader. Once this feature has been eliminated, Kindle e-books can only be transferred to a Kindle device via a wifi or cellular connection or accessed via the Kindle app or Kindle for web.

While users who read primarily in the Kindle app or on a Kindle device may not miss this feature, its loss does make it impossible to convert Kindle books to be compatible with other e-readers or to share them. Plus, if Amazon removes a title you’ve purchased or loses the license to it in the future, you won’t have access to it.

How to download and save your Kindle books

To download your Kindle books to your computer now, sign into your Amazon account and go to Accounts & Lists > Content Library > Book. Find the book you want to download from the list, open the More actions menu to the right, and select Download & transfer via USB.

The pop-up window will alert you to the impending doom of the USB download with the following message: “Starting February 26, 2025, the ‘Download & Transfer via USB’ option will no longer be available. You can still send Kindle books to your Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the ‘Deliver or Remove from Device’ option.”

Until then, you can select your device and hit Download, which will save the file to your computer as a .AZW3 file. Unfortunately, there’s no bulk download option, so you’ll have to go one by one.

You can then transfer books to your Kindle by connecting it using your USB cord and copying the file to the Kindle drive that appears on your desktop. Alternatively, you can convert it to other formats (like PDF) for reading on other devices via a tool like CloudConvert.

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Paint is among the cheapest of home renovations—it freshens things, covers old chips and scratches, and it can make your whole house feel brand new in just a few days. Even if you hire someone to paint a room, the cost isn’t entirely prohibitive—between $350 and $850, on average, per room. That’s pretty cheap compared to other renovation projects, but it’s still a chunk of change. Since painting is generally within most people’s DIY skill set, a lot of folks decide to set aside a weekend, buy some painter’s tape, and tackle the job themselves. If that’s you, here are some tips to make the job a little easier.

Liquid masking tape

If you’re painting a room with windows or any other glass features, you know the pure tedium of applying traditional painter’s tape around the edges of the glass (plus the tedium of having to scrape paint off the glass anyway because you got sloppy). That’s where liquid masking tape comes into play: You slather this stuff on your windows (you don’t need to worry about getting it on the trim, because it will act as a primer coating on anything that’s not glass), let it dry, then slather your paint on, let that dry, then just peel the masking tape off like a plastic film. As you can see here, it works like a charm and will save you a lot of time.

Catch drips

Painting a ceiling? Sorry to hear that—be prepared to emerge absolutely drenched in paint as it drips down on you, and you’d better have a sturdy drop cloth over everything in the room.

That is, unless you use an inverted umbrella. This might sound silly, but it actually works—poke a hole in an umbrella, push your paint roller handle through, seal it up with tape, and proceed to paint the ceiling. The umbrella will catch all the paint drips, and you can safely paint the whole ceiling without worrying about spending the next day scraping tiny drops of paint off of every surface. Pro tip: Buy a cheap clear plastic umbrella so you can actually see what you’re doing. Alternatively, a clear plastic paint tray liner can do the same job with less bulk to maneuver.

A dirty paint tray

You may have been advised at some point to line your paint tray, either with a cheap plastic liner or any plastic bag you have lying around (or even aluminum foil). Yes, that spares you a lot of cleanup—but the real hack is to just not clean your paint tray at all. Drain excess paint back into the can, then just let your tray dry out. A layer of old paint won’t affect the tray’s usefulness.

The cardboard method

Painting floor trim can be a real challenge. You can either spend a lot of time applying painter’s tape all around the edge of the room to protect the floor, or you can try to spread a drop cloth near the trim—but drop cloths will always get in the way of your brush or roller, and have a tendency to shift away from the wall just when you need it to protect everything.

Instead, use a piece of cardboard (or other thin, impermeable material, like a plastic sheet). Insert the sheet into the gap between the wall or trim and the floor, paint that section with wild abandon, then slide the sheet forward and paint the next section. The sheet protects the floor, you get paint all the way to the edge, and you didn’t spend the last hour putting down and endlessly adjusting tape.

Petroleum jelly

When it comes to painting around fixtures and hardware like doorknobs, it’s best to either remove them completely or mask them well with tape. But if you want to avoid that or you have small areas you want to avoid painting—screws, for example—where dabbing a tiny square of painter’s tape is both annoying and ineffective, you have an alternative: Use some petroleum jelly. Dab a bit onto the spot you want to skip painting and any paint that accidentally gets on it will just wipe away when everything’s dried.

Paint pens

Whether touching up a spot you missed or correcting a mistake, any spot in your room that requires a very fine paint line (like around a wall plate or fixture you can’t or simply don’t want to remove) can be incredibly challenging for even the smallest brush. That’s where a paint pen comes in. These refillable devices make it super easy to get into tight spaces and do quick touch-ups without having to tape the whole area off and try to awkwardly angle a brush. Inspect your work the next day and fill in any thin spots right away, with zero extra prep.

Gloves and socks

If you’ve ever painted stair balusters or furniture legs, you know it’s a pain to get good coverage all around with a brush. So, skip the brush: Put on a nitrite glove, pull an old sock over that, dip into your paint can, and just grab whatever it is you’re trying to paint with your hand. This technique is a lot faster when painting any kind of oddly-shaped element, because your hand is a lot more flexible and dexterous than a paintbrush or roller.

Radiator brushes and paint pads

Trying to paint behind something you’d really rather not remove, like a radiator or toilet? You can get in as close as you can and hope the blank spot behind it isn’t noticeable, or you could buy a specific tool like a radiator brush or a paint pad that allows you to easily and quickly paint the area behind these fixtures—no removal necessary.

Caulk

Getting crisp, clean lines with painter’s tape sometimes seems like an impossible task. There’s always some element of bleed-through that needs to be cleaned up when the tape is peeled away. But you can avoid this and guarantee sharp lines with something called Back Caulking:

• Leave a thin space between the edge of your tape and the wall—about the thickness of a dime.

• Fill that space with a thin bead of caulk.

• Smooth the bead with your finger and/or a damp cloth as you would with any caulking job.

• Let paint dry, remove painter’s tape.

Ta-da! Perfect lines.

Washington, D.C., Feb. 20, 2025—Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that USDA will release the first tranche of funding that was paused due to the review of funding in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

In alignment with White House directives, Secretary Rollins will honor contracts that were already made directly to farmers.  Specifically, USDA is releasing approximately $20 million in contracts for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, the Conservation Stewardship Program, and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.

Max’s March slate includes the fourth and final season of original comedy series The Righteous Gemstones (March 9), featuring Danny McBride, Adam Devine, John Goodman, and Edi Patterson, among others, as members of the famous televangelist Gemstone family. Episodes will debut weekly on Sundays.

At the end of the month, Max Original reality series Paul American (March 27) will premiere, with weekly episodes stretching into April and May. The eight-installment show gives an inside look into the lives of Jake and Logan Paul. HBO is also releasing a nine-part sports documentary, Celtics City (first episode premieres on March 3), about the NBA franchise from its origin to its 2024 championship.

There are three A24 films slated for Max in March: Queer (March 28) stars Daniel Craig as an American expat who develops a relationship with a younger main (played by Drew Starkey). The film is based on a William S. Burroughs novella, and Craig was nominated for Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, and Screen Actors Guild awards. Heretic (March 7) is a horror film about two Mormon missionaries attempting to convert a reclusive man played by Hugh Grant, who also received numerous award nominations for his performance. Finally, Sing Sing (March 21) stars Oscar nominee Colman Domingo as an inmate imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit who joins a theater group with other incarcerated men—the film is based on a true story.

Max will also have live sports in March, including NBA and NHL games, 3×3 women’s basketball, and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament from the first round through the Elite 8.

Here’s everything else coming to Max in March.

What’s coming to Max in March 2025

Available March 1

• A Lost Lady (1934)

• A Woman’s Face (1941)

• AEW Special Events, 2020A (2020)

• AEW Special Events, 2021A (2021)

• AEW Special Events, 2022A (2022)

• AEW Special Events, 2023A (2023)

• AEW Special Events, 2024A (2024)

• Along the Great Divide (1951)

• Arrow in the Dust (1954)

• Assassin’s Creed (2016)

• Away We Go (2009)

• Big Eyes (2014)

• Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)

• Carrie (1976)

• Carrie (2013)

• Child’s Play (1988)

• Child’s Play (2019)

• Executive Suite (1954)

• Ghostbusters (1984)

• Ghostbusters II (1989)

• Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)

• GoodFellas (1990)

• Jeopardy (1953)

• Ladies They Talk About (1933)

• Maggie (2015)

• Massacre River (1949)

• Men in Black (1997)

• Men in Black II (2002)

• Men in Black III (2012)

• My Reputation (1946)

• Night Nurse (1931)

• Paddy Chayefsky: Collector of Words (2024)

• Stand By Me (1986)

• Susan and God (1940)

• The Babe Ruth Story (1948)

• The Best Man Holiday (2013)

• The Burning Hills (1956)

• The Damned Don’t Cry (1950)

• The Descendants (2011)

• The Forger (2015)

• The Mad Miss Manton (1938)

• The Man with a Cloak (1951)

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

• The Purchase Price (1932)

• The Secret Bride (1934)

• The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)

• The Women (1939)

• This Woman Is Dangerous (1952)

• To Please a Lady (1950)

• When Ladies Meet (1941)

• White Chicks (2004)

• White Chicks: Unrated (2004)

• Why Him? (2016)

Available March 3

• Celtics City (HBO Original)

• The Nut Job (2014)

• The Nut Job 2 (2017)

• Tournament of Champions, Season 6 (Food Network)

Available March 4

• Smallfoot (2018)

Available March 5

• Jay & Pamela, Season 1 (TLC)

• Road Rage, Season 3 (ID)

Available March 6

• Dylan’s Playtime Adventures, Season 1A (Max Original)

• Jellystone, Season 3B (Max Original)

Available March 7

• Heretic (A24)

• When No One Sees Us (Cuando Nadie Nos Ve), Season 1 (Max Original)

Available March 9

• The Righteous Gemstones, Season 4 (HBO Original)

Available March 10

• Home Town Takeover, Season 3 (HGTV)

• Naked and Afraid, Season 18 (Discovery)

• Oh My God…Yes! A Series of Extremely Relatable Circumstances, Season 1 (Adult Swim)

• YOLO: Rainbow Trinity, Season 3 (Adult Swim)

Available March 11

• Kobe: The Making of a Legend (CNN Original Series)

• Spring Baking Championship, Season 11 (Food Network)

Available March 12

• Constables On Patrol, Season 1 (Discovery)

Available March 13

• Battle of Culiacán: Heirs of the Cartel (Culiacanazo: Herederos del Narco) (Max Original)

• Expedition Bigfoot, Season 6 (Discovery)

• Married to Real Estate, Season 4 (HGTV)

• The Parenting (Max Original)

Available March 14

• Beau Is Afraid (A24)

Available March 15

• Bugs Bunny Builders, Season 2C (Cartoon Network)

• Ready to Love, Season 10 (OWN)

Available March 17

• A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read, Season 1 (ID)

• A Clean Sheet: The Return of Gabe Landeskog, Season 1 (TNT Sports)

• TNT Sports Conversations, Season 1 (TNT Sports)

Available March 19

• House of Knives, Season 1 (Food Network)

Available March 21

• A Decent Man (Porządny Człowiek), Season 1 (HBO Original)

• Sing Sing (A24)

Available March 22

• Tiny Toons Looniversity, Season 2C (Cartoon Network)

Available March 23

• Girl Meets Farm, Season 14 (Food Network)

Available March 24

• Signs of a Psychopath, Season 9 (ID)

Available March 25

• Lockerbie: The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Season 1 (CNN Original)

Available March 26

• Naked and Afraid: LatAm, Season 3 (discovery+)

Available March 27

• Help! My House is Haunted, Season 5 (Travel Channel)

• Paul American, Season 1 (Max Original)

Available March 28

• Bargain Mansions, Season 6 (Magnolia Network)

• Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives, Season 50 (Food Network)

• Queer (A24)

• Reformed (Le Sens Des Choses), Season 1 (Max Original)

Available March 29

• The Pioneer Woman, Season 38 (Food Network)

Available March 31

• Amityville: Where The Echo Lives (2024)

• Camp Hell (2010)

• Enter Nowhere (2011)