In the week after Poynter published its investigation into extensive plagiarism found on a network of local news sites, the artificial intelligence company behind those sites lost a major client and fired the remaining contractor on the project.

Nota, which is known in the media industry for building AI-powered tools for newsrooms, had launched 11 of its own news sites in September in an effort to bring local coverage to “underserved” communities. But after Axios and Poynter found dozens of articles that copied the reporting, writing and photography of other journalists, the company closed the sites March 31.

Articles on the sites — collectively known as Nota News — were supposed to be based on public information like press releases and city council meeting videos. But for months, the two editors in charge of the sites had taken articles from local outlets, run them through Nota’s tools and published the resulting stories under their own bylines.…