The modern media landscape faces an unprecedented crisis of authenticity as generative artificial intelligence lowers the barrier to entry for fabrication, manipulation, and synthetic media. Responding directly to this escalating threat, the Press Gazette has officially launched "Made by Humans," a specialized enterprise tool engineered to protect publishers from inadvertently publishing misleading, deceptive, or entirely AI-generated content. Developed in strategic partnership with Dublin-based publishing technology provider Flip-Pay, the platform integrates industry-leading detection technologies directly into content management systems (CMS), offering newsrooms a vital first line of defense before articles, images, audio, or video go live.
The rollout of Made by Humans marks a critical milestone in the journalism industry’s ongoing struggle against synthetic pollution—a phenomenon cataloged extensively by the Press Gazette’s investigative reporting series, "Reality Wars."
Background Context and the Rise of the "Reality Wars"
Over the past several years, mainstream news organizations have increasingly fallen victim to sophisticated synthetic content. The integrity of the global information ecosystem has been severely compromised by what industry experts term "fake experts"—fictitious personas generated by AI that infiltrate news commentary, pitch articles, and distribute manipulated media to reputable publications.
Notable incidents underscore the urgency of these vulnerabilities. Recently, major outlets including Wired and Business Insider were forced to retract freelance articles after discovering that the authors—such as a fabricated persona named Margaux Blanchard—relied heavily on AI tools to pitch and write invented news features. Similarly, international newsrooms were duped by an AI-manipulated image distributed by a Thai police force, which falsely claimed that elite detectives had dressed in drag as showgirls for an undercover narcotics sting.
These high-profile failures highlighted a glaring operational gap in modern newsrooms. According to a comprehensive Press Gazette survey of more than 200 publishers, editors, and journalists, 95% of respondents firmly believe that AI-generated content should be explicitly flagged to readers. However, 64% admitted that their publications currently possess no reliable mechanism to check for unauthorized or undisclosed AI use. Furthermore, 87% of surveyed media professionals indicated that offering a verifiable "human-made" guarantee would significantly enhance reader trust and brand loyalty in an era of widespread skepticism.
Technical Architecture and Integration
Designed to operate seamlessly within existing publishing workflows, Made by Humans consolidates multiple advanced verification engines into a single, unified dashboard. The platform evaluates text, images, video, and audio assets at both the macro (article) and micro (sentence or pixel) levels before publication.
The system relies on a suite of specialized detection technologies:
- Pangram: Responsible for text analysis, Pangram is capable of identifying content generated by foundational large language models developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and DeepSeek. Its latest iteration, Pangram 4, offers sentence-level detection with an exceptionally low false-positive rate (claiming just one false positive per 10,000 checks) and features built-in recognition against adversarial "humanizer" scripts designed to mask AI phrasing. Crucially, Pangram 4 distinguishes between full AI generation and AI-assisted human drafting, allowing journalists to safely use AI for transcription, research, or light editing without triggering false alerts.
- Identifai: Specializing in deepfake and synthetic media detection, Identifai reviews visual and audio assets. According to benchmark testing, its lead image model detects AI-generated graphics with 99.8% accuracy, while its synthetic voice and audio model achieves 91.8% accuracy. Identifai’s extensive research has been published in peer-reviewed IEEE and ACM journals and played a pivotal role in helping the Press Gazette uncover fake experts during the Reality Wars investigations.
The platform plugs directly into popular content management systems such as WordPress, delivering automated pre-publishing verification alerts. It operates across four major languages—English, French, Spanish, and German—via localized interfaces. Additionally, Made by Humans logs every review and editorial interaction to establish a robust audit trail, assisting publishers with compliance frameworks such as the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act.
Chronology of Development and Trial
The concept for Made by Humans originated from Dominic Ponsford, Editor-in-Chief of the Press Gazette, following months of investigative reporting into synthetic media threats. Recognizing that traditional editorial oversight alone was no longer sufficient against sophisticated text generators and deepfakes, Ponsford collaborated with Flip-Pay CEO Paul McCarthy-Brain to turn the vision into a scalable enterprise solution.
- January 2020 – March 2026: Identifai tracks a dramatic surge in reported deepfake incidents across English-language media and social platforms. Documented cases escalate from a mere four incidents in January 2020 to more than 3,000 incidents in March 2026, illustrating an exponential rise in synthetic media deployment.
- Late 2025 – Early 2026: The Press Gazette conducts its "Reality Wars" investigations, exposing widespread infiltration of fake expert commentary and fabricated freelance pitches across prominent media titles.
- Mid-2026: Press Gazette surveys over 200 industry professionals, revealing that nearly two-thirds of newsrooms lack reliable AI-detection tools despite overwhelming demand for transparency.
- Today: Press Gazette becomes the world’s first publication to officially trial Made by Humans inside its own CMS, while the platform launches commercially for global newsrooms, broadcasters, and digital publishers.
Stakeholder Statements and Industry Reactions
Industry leaders have widely praised the platform as a vital, pragmatic tool that balances technological progress with journalistic accountability.
Dominic Ponsford emphasized that the tool is intended to reinforce, rather than replace, traditional editorial standards:
"We named our investigations into AI-generated content ‘Reality Wars’ because quality, human-authored journalism is in a fight for survival against misleading AI-written bilge. We’ve seen hundreds of stories taken down by reputable titles after elements have been identified as misleading or AI-generated. This tool will help to stop such articles before publication. Made By Humans helps protect publishers from the colossal reputational damage that could come from publishing misleading AI-generated material, and is a tool to support, not replace, human editorial judgment."
Ponsford added that while the Press Gazette utilizes AI for auxiliary tasks like transcriptions and data analysis, the publication remains deeply committed to safeguarding human creativity and curiosity at the core of its reporting.
Paul McCarthy-Brain, CEO of Flip-Pay, highlighted the commercial and regulatory imperatives driving the platform’s adoption:
"We work closely with publishers around the world and can see how AI is undermining their commercial authority and now, the quality and reputation of their editorial content, too. Made by Humans uses best-of-breed AI-detection technology and covers every content risk through one platform, which can be embedded right into the workflow. It offers editors a clear evidence-based assessment with an audit trail which can be useful for supporting EU compliance. It’s a shining example of how AI can be used to benefit publishers."
Kate Burns, Vice President for EMEA at Identifai, underscored the growing peril faced by frontline newsroom staff:
"Almost anyone can now create a deepfake, and the most dangerous ones look exactly like the real thing. Many are picked up by hard-working fact-checkers and picture desks before they make it into the public domain, but editorial teams are on the front line here. Made by Humans supported by Identifai gives media and broadcasters the vital tools they need to ask the simple question ‘is this real?’ and greater peace of mind to publish."
Max Spero, CEO of Pangram, noted the significance of granular text analysis in preserving journalistic nuance:
"AI-generated content is proliferating rapidly across many industries, and publishing is no different. We’re proud that Pangram is integrated with Made by Humans to increase transparency for media organisations. Importantly for editors, Pangram 4 also distinguishes between AI-polished human writing and full AI generation, so it allows for journalists who might be using AI for tasks such as transcripts, research or light editing."
Broader Impact and Market Implications
The introduction of Made by Humans arrives at a pivotal juncture for the global publishing industry. Beyond mitigating reputational risks and preventing embarrassing public retractions, the platform introduces a trust-signaling mechanism for readers and advertisers.
Participating publications that maintain verification standards can generate compliance reports and display a dedicated "human-made" trust badge on their websites. This visible certification provides audiences with verifiable proof of editorial authenticity, helping trusted outlets differentiate themselves from low-quality, programmatic content farms. Furthermore, as regulatory bodies worldwide implement stringent transparency requirements for synthetic media—particularly within the European Union—the platform’s comprehensive audit trails offer publishers an essential framework for regulatory compliance.
As generative models continue to evolve, tools like Made by Humans represent a fundamental shift in digital publishing infrastructure, positioning technological verification as an indispensable pillar of modern newsroom operations.
