Italian newspaper Il Foglio has published the first entirely AI edition. As global media organisations challenge AI platforms for using their content without consent, an Italian newspaper has taken a different approach.
Il Foglio claims to have made history by publishing an edition entirely created by artificial intelligence. The conservative-liberal daily has launched a month-long experiment to explore AI’s influence on journalism and everyday life. A special four-page broadsheet edition, generated by AI, was available in print and online from Tuesday, according to The Guardian.
Editor Claudio Cerasa confirmed AI was responsible for writing the articles and crafting the headlines. “For everything. For the writing, the headlines, the quotes, the summaries. And, sometimes, even for the irony,” he said. Cerasa explained that journalists’ only role was to “ask questions [to an AI tool] and read the answers.”
The first AI-produced edition features articles on US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Italy’s economy. The content is clear, structured, and grammatically sound, but lacks human quotes. A piece on page 2 discusses “situationships” and why young Europeans avoid committed relationships. The final page includes AI-generated letters from readers, one asking if AI will render humans “useless.”
“AI is a great innovation, but it doesn’t yet know how to order a coffee without getting the sugar wrong,” reads the AI-generated response.
Il Foglio: A Brief Overview
Il Foglio, meaning “The Paper” or “The Sheet” in English, was founded in 1996. Giuliano Ferrara, an Italian journalist, television host, and politician, launched the newspaper.
Ferrara shifted from far-left to neoconservatism and served as a government spokesman in Silvio Berlusconi’s first administration in 1994. Despite criticising what he called a leftist cultural dominance, Ferrara included left-leaning journalists in his newsroom.
Claudio Cerasa has served as Il Foglio’s editor since 2015.
AI in Journalism: A New Era?
Cerasa described the AI-driven edition as a practical demonstration of how artificial intelligence could function in journalism. The long-term impact remains uncertain.
Despite the entire edition being AI-generated, Cerasa encouraged readers to view it not as “artificial” but as an emerging form of intelligence, one that might soon transform news production.
