How The New York Times Reports on A.I. Images

The internet is awash in A.I.-generated video and images — think President Trump appearing to tame a tiger or unbelievable fitness transformations.

But it’s rare for The New York Times to report on specific pieces of A.I. slop, even on days when a viral clip seems to be all anyone is talking about. Why is that? How do we decide to report on certain images? And how do we know where to draw the line?

For answers, we turned to three colleagues who seek clarity in a bewildering media world: Stuart A. Thompson, who reports on online influence; Aisha Khan, the deputy Standards editor; and Mark Scheffler, who leads the Visual Investigations team.

These are edited excerpts from our conversation.

How do we decide when A.I. images and memes are newsworthy?

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/21/insider/trump-ai-videos-photos.html