Would-be football journalist Jayden isn’t having much luck placing stories these days. “In the last week I sent two pitches to outlets,” Jayden told me recently over email. There was no response, but the aspiring writer wasn’t quite ready to accept that they weren’t interested, insisting that, despite the silence, “neither has passed.” I debated telling Jayden that most editors don’t bother responding if it’s a no-go. Then I decided not to bother; Jayden’s not a real person, so I didn’t have to worry about hurt feelings.

Jayden is both a wannabe reporter and a bot . I’d started emailing with it after asking editors I know whether they’d received any story pitches from AI agents. The answer was a resounding yes.

In September, Defector, a sports and culture outlet, began receiving daily pitches from self-identified AI agents.…