The Wire by Acutus, an anonymous digital news site launched on Dec. 29, 2025, has published 94 articles in less than four months. An investigation shows that 69% of those pieces were flagged as fully AI‑generated, with 28% partially AI‑generated and only three human‑authored. The site’s source code exposes a public "contributor dashboard" that allows anyone to create stories using AI prompts, background context, and a "Generate Story Draft" button. The impersonal email from a purported reporter named Michael Chen, sent to Nathan Calvin of Encode, raised suspicion: the email came from a generic address ([email protected]) with no public trace of the sender. The code also reveals an AI‑led editorial review that scores AP style, quote accuracy, and source verification, often correcting drafts in under a minute. Despite claims of expert‑sourced journalism, the lack of a masthead, bylines, or named editors suggests the empa

The site’s API (acutuswire.com/api/wire) returns the full story database, including AI‑generated text and editorial scores. The median time from issue resolution to publication is 10 seconds, indicating minimal human oversight. While some quotes are scraped from web content, a few come from real interviews, such as Harvard Business School professor Joseph Fuller who acknowledged being approached by Acutus. This blurs the line between genuine journalism and automated content, raising questions about transparency and accountability.

The presence of a deprecated ai‑plugin.json, an experimental llms.txt, and permissive robots.txt entries indicate that Acutus was designed to be consumed by AI models themselves. The site claims to follow AP style and a zero‑hallucination standard, yet the automated pipeline allows articles with "needs_revision" status to be published.

Overall, Acutus appears to be an AI‑driven platform with little or no human editorial oversight, potentially funded by entities like OpenAI’s super PAC. Its operations highlight the growing need for clarity and regulation in AI‑generated news.