The crackdown comes at a moment of heightened scrutiny over the paper's handling of AI-related editorial failures. In March, a contributor to the paper's Modern Love column was accused of using AI to generate an emotional personal essay, with the writer later confirming she had used chatbots to help conceptualize and edit the piece. In April, the paper cut ties with a freelancer who admitted using AI to produce a book review later found to be riddled with plagiarism. Most recently, a substantial correction revealed that an article by the NYT's Canada bureau chief contained an AI-fabricated quote that had been published as a direct attribution to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, remaining uncorrected for weeks before the paper acknowledged the reporter should have verified what the AI tool returned.