By Emma Loffhagen
Publication Date: 2026-03-31 14:45:00
The New York Times has severed ties with a freelance journalist after discovering he used artificial intelligence to write a book review that mirrored elements of a review of the same book in the Guardian.
This came after a New York Times reader noted similarities between the newspaper’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 by Christobel Kent in the Guardian.
The New York Times opened an investigation in which Preston admitted that he had used AI to write the review and had failed to recognize the sections he had taken from the Guardian before submitting it. In a statement to the Guardian on Tuesday, Preston said he was “extremely embarrassed” and had “made a serious mistake.”
The New York Times alerted the Guardian to the overlap in an email on Monday, adding an editor’s note to the review acknowledging the use of AI and pointing to the…
