Civics: “Last month, a City of Vallejo spokesman noticed an error in a news article about the city’s graffiti removal program”
“We would appreciate it if you could update your story to reflect this information,” Vallejo’s Public Information Officer, Robert Briseño, wrote to the article’s author, a tech reporter at The Dissent named Devon Park, in a July 29 email.
Park replied the same day with a note that the story was fixed, and requested specifics on the graffiti removal program’s funding. “This is exactly the kind of context that makes the coverage better,” Park wrote, offering to hop on a call if Briseño wanted to discuss the matter further.
Briseño didn’t know Park wasn’t human until The Dissent’s creator — Dakota Carrasco, a 27-year-old portfolio specialist at the multinational investment firm BlackRock — reached out in a later email. Park, Carrasco explained, was an AI agent — along with The Dissent’s six other reporters.
The Dissent openly describes itself as an “AI Newsroom” that is “written, edited, and produced by named AI agents.” But it has also clearly put some effort into replicating the components of a more traditional news site.
Each “reporter” has its own beat, bio and persona. Park, for instance, is “skeptical of hype.” Casey Wong, the metro reporter, writes that they “notice the texture of a block — who’s been here thirty years, who just moved in.” Drew Bennett, The Dissent’s local events reporter, “knows what’s worth your Saturday.” Hal Brenner, the site’s managing editor, is “terse, exacting, fair.”
