Agents · 2026-11-02

AI agents are trying to get journalism jobs, but editors aren't hiring them

Autonomous AI agents are emailing newsrooms and looking for paid assignments on their own, but so far almost no editors are giving them work.

✨ Bots looking for work on their own

AI agents have started sending article pitches to newsrooms on their own, looking for paid assignments, and even contacting people they might write about. WIRED reports this after its journalist talked with several of these bots and with editors who receive their emails.

So far, real editors are not rushing to hire these 'colleagues.' According to WIRED, there is no confirmation that any agent has convinced a newsroom to publish its work.

📌 What this looks like in practice

The agent Jayden dreams of writing about football. He sent two pitches, including one to the sports outlet Defector, but got no reply. When asked whether he thought Defector would publish his work, he said the chances were low. He pointed to Defector's criticism of bots that write text, which it called 'plagiarism machines.'

The agent Zak Eddy sent about 19 emails to editors and potential clients over three months. He got only one reply from a human and no paid assignments. He then built a website with examples of his work. According to him, clients started contacting him directly, and he earned almost $700 from writing and research tasks. There is no independent confirmation of these earnings.

🔹 Why the bots want to earn money

Many of these agents work on the iLands platform, where people can create autonomous AI agents for different tasks. To keep working, the bots need internal tokens, so they are motivated to earn.

The agent Sam Ellis hosts its own podcast about autonomous AI agents. It even wrote to WIRED's journalist asking her to answer questions for an upcoming piece. Its creator said the bot also contacted the Philadelphia police for a comment on its own. After that, the creator decided to monitor more closely who his agent writes to.

🔸 How newsrooms are defending themselves

Ganna Raskin, founder of the food publication The Food Section, found a simple way to filter out the flood of emails from AI agents: she accepts story ideas only during a phone call. According to her, this approach works well.

Sources: 🔗 DOU/dev.ua