The paper reported that Google has held meetings with the NYT itself as well as the Washington Post and News Corp which owns the Wall Street Journal.

The search giant reportedly said the tool, which has been dubbed Genesis, will help journalists to produce different writing styles and offer options for headlines rather than pitching it as a full-scale replacement.

“These tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating and fact-checking their articles,” Google said.

But according to the NYT, some of the executives who were in the room while Google was pitching found the proposal “unsettling”.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press signed a deal with OpenAI to explore the possibility of using generative AI to create news articles.

Kelly McBride, an expert in journalism ethics for the Poynter Institute, said use of such tools would “erode the quality” of news articles as well as confidence in news...