The Reading Garden: 4/25/25
What We’re Reading, and Why It Matters to Legacy Media
Welcome back to the Reading Garden, where every Friday we spotlight three must-read pieces we're paying attention to and explore what they mean for legacy media.
Let’s get into it…
The title basically gives away the punchline, but the details are worth unpacking… Researchers gave two groups the same AI-generated short story. One group was told it was AI, and the other wasn’t. Then, halfway through, the participants were asked if they’d give up part of their compensation to keep reading.
Unsurprisingly, the group that knew it was AI judged the story more harshly. But here’s the twist: both groups were equally willing to spend money and time to finish reading it.
It’s worth mentioning that attitudes toward AI are still evolving, so who knows where all of this will end up. Either way, this is pretty shocking for those of us in legacy media. We keep hearing that people will re…
