Machine written articles are a large part of why news in general is virtually worthless to me these days. Especially in finance, I frequently read things that betray a total lack of understanding of the content. This has a knock-on effect that might not be obvious. As a journalist, you might think, well, why don't I read a reputable source like the WSJ - isn't good journalism more valuable when there is more bad stuff about? But people are getting clicks and selling ads with the automatically produced garbage, and therefore I know that traditionally trustworthy media has neither the incentive nor the morale to live up to their past standards. And thus, I have no interest any more in subscribing to even the best. For years, I've watched how under modern competitive conditions, a good brand (in any industry) is not worth maintaining any more, but rather it's become optimal to strip mine it to a husk. It's not really some mysterious decline of society, but a direct result of better data analysis. If someone says "we won Pulitzer prizes!" it doesn't soften me a bit - they only want me to pay them for what they did in the past, and that means nothing.