Forget about #TikTok. Look at America’s No. 1 news app NewsBreak.

Billing itself as “the go-to source for all things local,” Newsbreak says it has over 50 million monthly users. It publishes licensed content from major media outlets, including Reuters, Fox, AP and CNN as well as some information obtained by scraping the internet for local news or press releases which it rewrites with the help of AI. It is only available in the U.S.

But in at least 40 instances since 2021, the app’s use of AI tools affected the communities it strives to serve, with Newsbreak publishing erroneous stories; creating 10 stories from local news sites under fictitious bylines; and lifting content from its competitors, according to a review of previously unreported court documents related to copyright infringement, cease-and-desist emails and a 2022 company memo registering concerns about “AI-generated stories.”

Newsbreak generates revenue by showing ads to its users, who are predominantly female, above the age of 45, without college degrees, and live in suburban or rural parts of the U.S., according to the seven former employees and a 2021 company presentation.

The company launched in the U.S. in 2015 as a subsidiary of Yidian, a Chinese news aggregation app. Both companies were founded by Jeff Zheng, the CEO of Newsbreak, and the companies share a U.S. patent registered in 2015 for an “Interest Engine” algorithm, which recommends news content based on a user’s interests and location.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/top-news-app-us-chinese-origins-writes-fiction-help-ai-rcna155567

#1 news app in America is Chinese and uses AI to ‘write fiction’

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/top-news-app-us-chinese-100328243.html

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