Semafor reports in a November 8, 2026 exclusive that opponents of Waymo placed op-eds in local news outlets arguing the autonomous taxi company could cost jobs, endanger riders, deprive the government of information, and block fire trucks.

The AI detection service Pangram found many of the pieces were written with a significant amount of AI input — yet, according to Semafor, none contained labels disclosing AI use.

Ira Goldstein, former head of New York's Black Car Fund and author of a New York Daily News op-ed, told Semafor that a first draft was prepared by his PR firm, which he called standard procedure, adding that he stands by every word.

The specific numbers are what make the story a niche bombshell.

Two pieces in the Dallas Morning News by lawyer Amy Witherite registered as 95% and 71% AI-written on Pangram, per Semafor; a San Francisco Chronicle piece on autonomous vehicles going dormant during power outages scored 88%; a New York Daily News piece scored 68%; a San Diego Union-Tribune piece on job displacement registered 95%; and a Times of San Diego piece on tracking Waymo's rollout scored 87%.

FourWeekMBA's arithmetic puts the median at 87.5%, with four of six scoring 87% or higher — all undisclosed.

The authors named by Semafor did not deny AI involvement.

Michael Redmond of the San Francisco Chronicle said he uses AI tools for research and to organize his thinking, calling them a fact of modern writing; a spokesperson for Witherite said AI is a shiny object used to change the subject and that she approves every piece.

Editors offered different rules: Chronicle editor Matt Fleischer said the paper asks opinion writers to disclose AI use; the Dallas Morning News's Ryan Sanders said it does not accept pieces generated entirely by AI; and Daily News executive editor Andrew Julien said the paper aims to create stricter guardrails, citing its litigation against Microsoft and OpenAI.

The undisclosed AI drafting sits inside a monthslong battle over whether Waymo can operate commercially in several major cities.

According to Semafor, citing The Washington Post, the Coalition for Accountability and Road Safety spent more than $2.6 million on ads in the DC area in 2026 — more than the winning mayoral candidate spent the same year.

Semafor reports Waymo operates commercially in 15 US cities and faces opposition from labor unions, Uber, Lyft, and pedestrian safety advocates.

For AV watchers, the twist is that the anti-robotaxi campaign itself was partly machine-written; notably, Semafor reports Goldstein's PR firm later dropped the campaign to work for Waymo.